I’ve never seen a good answer to this in accessibility guides, would you mind making a recommendation? Is there any preferred alt text for something like:
“clarification image with an arrow pointing at object”
“Picture of a butt selfie, it’s completely black”
“Picture of a table with nothing on it”
“example of lens flare shown from camera”
“N/A” dangerous
Sometimes an image is clearly only useful as a visual aid, I feel like “” (exluding it) makes people feel like they are missing the joke. But given it’s an accessibility tool; unneeded details may waste your time.
I guess my question would be, why do you need the picture as a visual aid, is the accompanying body text confusing without that visual aid? and if so, by having no alt text, you accept that you will leave VI people confused and only sighted people will have the clarification needed.
If your including a picture of a table with nothing on it, there’s a reason, so yes, that alt text is perfectly reasonable.
Personally I wish there was a way to enable two types of alt text on images, for long and quick context.
Because I understand your concern about unnecessary detail, if I’m in a rush “a table with nothing on it” will do for quicker context, but there are times when it’s appropriate to go much deeper, “a picture of a hard wood rustic coffee table, taken from a high angle, natural sunlight, there are no objects on the table.”
I’ve never seen a good answer to this in accessibility guides, would you mind making a recommendation? Is there any preferred alt text for something like:
Sometimes an image is clearly only useful as a visual aid, I feel like “” (exluding it) makes people feel like they are missing the joke. But given it’s an accessibility tool; unneeded details may waste your time.
I guess my question would be, why do you need the picture as a visual aid, is the accompanying body text confusing without that visual aid? and if so, by having no alt text, you accept that you will leave VI people confused and only sighted people will have the clarification needed.
If your including a picture of a table with nothing on it, there’s a reason, so yes, that alt text is perfectly reasonable.
Personally I wish there was a way to enable two types of alt text on images, for long and quick context.
Because I understand your concern about unnecessary detail, if I’m in a rush “a table with nothing on it” will do for quicker context, but there are times when it’s appropriate to go much deeper, “a picture of a hard wood rustic coffee table, taken from a high angle, natural sunlight, there are no objects on the table.”