Regarding the first example, even if the photo seems inconsequential to you, it's part of the narrative content of the article, perhaps to set a tone; it's an i

Regarding the first example, even if the photo seems inconsequential to you, it's part of the narrative content of the article, perhaps to set a tone; it's an illustration, not simply decoration. Sighted and non-sighted users alike can use it to determine and judge the perspective and tone of the article, even if it doesn't have any other function. I'd argue that if the image is useless to the narrative, it shouldn't be included at all, blind users or not. But in your example it does seem related to the narrative, and just as we can say that non-verbal cues are important to spoken communication, non-written cues are important to written communication.