Images - for the blind people


Userlevel 7
Badge +14

I had a co-worker who is blind. One of the things that was really frustrating for him was images, and especially images that do not have an ALT text or a description below. Some do have an ALT text like “logo 322kb” but that does not describe the image.

As you might have noticed when I post an image here on the community hub, I try to describe the image below the image in the Caption. Currently this platform does not support ALT texts, so next best thing is using the caption below the image. 

From what I have learned from him, try to describe the image in the ALT text/caption as complete as possible. For example, do not use things like “Veeam logo” but use “Veeam Company logo; contains text VEEAM in white with a light green background” or “Picture of my cat” but “Picture of my cat attacking a laser light” 

Adding a caption on the Community Hub is easy:

December Chocolatey Month banner; Alfred, a cat and community mascotte, is wearing a Christmas hat and licking a Chocolate bar with the Chocolatey logo on it. On the background pine trees are draw, a green heart and some festive swirls. Below the image is a text area where you should add an image caption.

You should not apply this only here, but also on your Twitter images; blog posts and wherever you use an image.

Also make sure you use proper spelling, punctuation and capital letters where required. A blind person uses Text to Speak software or a braille display.

Another thing that you should do properly is tags and/or usernames, if possible. #UseCamelCaseInYourTags helps the not only the blind person but also anyone else to understand what you are saying. For example volkswagenitalia is that VolkswaGenitalia or VolkswagenItalia, same letters, totally different meaning. This example is from the Volkswagen Italia instagram account. 


11 comments

Userlevel 7
Badge +22

Thanks Maurice, I had no idea that was what the caption was for. I will try going forward to remember to fill those in.

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

@mkevenaar is dishing out best practices for free. If you are a blogger, the ALT text/caption will greatly help your SEO journey. There are plugins to automate this. Most times, we do not use descriptive names and yet it helps us a lot.

Note: Using descriptive names for images is time consuming tho… 

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@mkevenaar is dishing out best practices for free. If you are a blogger, the ALT text/caption will greatly help your SEO journey. There are plugins to automate this. Most times, we do not use descriptive names and yet it helps us a lot.

Note: Using descriptive names for images is time consuming tho… 

The filename is a nice to have. But the ALT text is more important. But some people use the filename and size as the ALT text, and that’s not helpful

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

@mkevenaar is dishing out best practices for free. If you are a blogger, the ALT text/caption will greatly help your SEO journey. There are plugins to automate this. Most times, we do not use descriptive names and yet it helps us a lot.

Note: Using descriptive names for images is time consuming tho… 

The filename is a nice to have. But the ALT text is more important. But some people use the filename and size as the ALT text, and that’s not helpful

You are right! I automate this ALT TXT process with a plugin. It takes whatever i have in my file name

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@mkevenaar is dishing out best practices for free. If you are a blogger, the ALT text/caption will greatly help your SEO journey. There are plugins to automate this. Most times, we do not use descriptive names and yet it helps us a lot.

Note: Using descriptive names for images is time consuming tho… 

The filename is a nice to have. But the ALT text is more important. But some people use the filename and size as the ALT text, and that’s not helpful

You are right! I automate this ALT TXT process with a plugin. It takes whatever i have in my file name

But the filename probably does not explain in detail what your image is about, right?

 

If you look at the example screenshot I posted in my first post, you’ll see that I tried to describe the image in detail.

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

@mkevenaar is dishing out best practices for free. If you are a blogger, the ALT text/caption will greatly help your SEO journey. There are plugins to automate this. Most times, we do not use descriptive names and yet it helps us a lot.

Note: Using descriptive names for images is time consuming tho… 

The filename is a nice to have. But the ALT text is more important. But some people use the filename and size as the ALT text, and that’s not helpful

You are right! I automate this ALT TXT process with a plugin. It takes whatever i have in my file name

But the filename probably does not explain in detail what your image is about, right?

 

If you look at the example screenshot I posted in my first post, you’ll see that I tried to describe the image in detail.

I get you best! You are absolutely right. I will work on the caption and alt txt field better. The down side here is, this will slow the volume of publishing these guides down

Userlevel 7
Badge +20

Thanks Maurice, I had no idea that was what the caption was for. I will try going forward to remember to fill those in.

I am in the same situation not knowing what it was for, but this was a great explanation and something to update when using images in the future. Anything to make it easier for all. 😁

Thanks Maurice!

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

Seriously…I’m catching up on posts and two posts ago I noticed you’re ALT text for the Mandalorian meme and realized this is a regular thing you do as was going to mention it, but I feel like I sometimes get threads off-topic, so thanks for creating a new topic for this!

Userlevel 7
Badge +20

@mkevenaar is dishing out best practices for free. If you are a blogger, the ALT text/caption will greatly help your SEO journey. There are plugins to automate this. Most times, we do not use descriptive names and yet it helps us a lot.

Note: Using descriptive names for images is time consuming tho… 

The filename is a nice to have. But the ALT text is more important. But some people use the filename and size as the ALT text, and that’s not helpful

You are right! I automate this ALT TXT process with a plugin. It takes whatever i have in my file name

But the filename probably does not explain in detail what your image is about, right?

 

If you look at the example screenshot I posted in my first post, you’ll see that I tried to describe the image in detail.

I get you best! You are absolutely right. I will work on the caption and alt txt field better. The down side here is, this will slow the volume of publishing these guides down

But it does improve the reach of those guides you write 😊 I raised a feature request for alt text a little while ago due to this, and have been trying to be hard on myself ensuring I add my alt text as captions on here.

 

Thanks for increasing awareness on the subject @mkevenaar 

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

Seriously…I’m catching up on posts and two posts ago I noticed you’re ALT text for the Mandalorian meme and realized this is a regular thing you do as was going to mention it, but I feel like I sometimes get threads off-topic, so thanks for creating a new topic for this!

You are very welcome. I really hope this helps us all!

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

 But it does improve the reach of those guides you write 😊

 

Yeah, it’s great for guides…but I’ve not used it for the likes of memes, etc.  I’ll do my best to try and add those going forward.

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