Most of us know that all major search engines give some consider to ALT tags as a ranking factor and that keyword enriched Alt tags can help your site achieve a higher search engine page position. However, Webmasters and Marketing Manages can easily overlook some very important factors to properly deployed ALT tags.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Section 508 establishes the U.S. requirements for Web accessibility. Most online visitors with disabilities access the web though a screen reader. Because screen readers and search engine spiders can't understand images, an alternative, or ALT, text HTML tag was crated.
The U.S. Bureau of the Census 2009 indicates that fifteen percent of the U.S. population ages 5 years and older have some disability.
41% are 65 years and older
6% are 5–15 years
7% are 16–20 years
13% age 21–64
Yes, that is 15% of the US population who shop, communicate, research, bookmark and share. People who are usually loyal to sites that provides a friendly online user experience, people who are connect with others that may or may not require a screen reader, people that appreciate the extra effort it takes to make the site intuitive and accessible.
Here are some tips that should help you help others.
Spacer images, Bullets and icons should always be assigned null ALT text, or alt="". This way most screen readers will completely ignore the image and won't even announce its presence. Keep in mind that if you have a page that contains 10 spacer images and 10 bullets items and your alt tags look like alt="spacer image" or alt=" bullet". The person on the other end of a screen reader has to waste time listening to your tags.
Don’t leave out the spacer for image names. Most screen readers will read out the filename, which could be ‘/images/redfordcar1962.gif’. A screen reader would announce this image as “Image, slash images slash redforadcar1962 gif”. If you use spacer between each word then the reader would announce this image as “Image, company slash images slash red ford car 1962.gif
I look forward to receiving constructive feedback from the community.
Read more...