ALT text and basic accessibility

McEwan, Tom; Weerts, Ben

Abstract

Recent surveys have shown that the majority of websites are not accessible. Despite legal obligations and the importance of the internet for disabled people, most websites fail to reach a basic level of accessibility, yet web developers are not short of accessibility guidelines and recommendations. This preliminary study consists of a meta-review of web accessibility studies in order to identify a set of common barriers faced by the impaired. Automated testing, of websites created by recent multimedia graduates in their final semester, confirms these problems. In particular non-use, and incorrect use, of ALT (alternative) text emerges as the most frequent, basic error. We conclude that ALT is a litmus test of developers' attitudes towards accessibility and propose future work to identify how to understand and improve these attitudes

Citation

McEwan, T., & Weerts, B. (2007). ALT text and basic accessibility. In D. Ramduny-Ellis, & D. Rachovides (Eds.), People and computers XXI : HCI-- but not as we know it : proceedings of HCI 2007, the 21st British HCI Group Annual Conference (1-4)

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (Published)
• Conference Name: 21st British HCI Group Annual Conference
• Start Date: Sep 3, 2007
• End Date: Sep 7, 2007
• Online Publication Date: Dec 1, 2007
• Publication Date: 2007
• Deposit Date: Mar 23, 2010
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 23, 2010
• Publisher: BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 2
• Pages: 1-4
• Book Title: People and computers XXI : HCI-- but not as we know it : proceedings of HCI 2007, the 21st British HCI Group Annual Conference.
• ISBN: 1902505956
• Keywords: Human Computer Interaction; web development; accessibility compliance; ALT
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/id/eprint/3700
• Contract Date: Mar 23, 2010