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The official reference would be WCAG (aiming for level AA compliance is the most common): https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/glance/ https://www.

The official reference would be WCAG (aiming for level AA compliance is the most common): https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/glance/ https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/glance/ https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/quickref/ https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/quickref/ I usually find these docs verbose and intimating though. There's a lot of more friendly summaries and articles to pick from like: https://webaim.org/standards/wcag/checklist https://webaim.org/standards/wcag/checklist For alt tags, alt="" is appropriate if the image is only decorative or not adding anything that would be useful to someone on a screen reader. A useful tip for deciding on what to do is to get familiar with a screen reader interface available for your browser - see how easily you can browse, use, and understand your own web pages without being able to look at them. > I am confused by the disparity between stated good practice and common practice by large websites. Refer to WCAG for what to do and generally ignore what even large popular websites do. Most websites don't prioritise accessibility, even the basic stuff. I think this is generally because: there needs to be knowledgable advocates of accessibility on the team, it's not always obvious how to follow the rules even when you're aware of them (there's subjective and contextual parts you can't automate, like with alt tags above), it requires extra design/dev/testing resources to do properly, people see other popular websites not following the rules so don't bother themselves, and branding often takes priority.

graemep 3y ago
That has been what I have mostly done so far, but the fact that big sites do it and there are no apparent complaints or pushback makes me doubt my approach. Two of the sites I mentioned are trying quite hard, and the other does at least have alt tags. With regard to using screen readers, do I need to use multiple screen readers if they differ?
- seanwilson 3y ago
  There's some examples here of websites getting in trouble for not being accessible (the Domino's Pizza one is well known) if that helps: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_accessibility#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_accessibility#United_State... > With regard to using screen readers, do I need to use multiple screen readers if they differ? Unfortunately, they all have their own quirks. Alt tags and other basics that are built into HTML should be pretty simple and consistent between screen readers. More custom things like modals and JavaScript interactivity and also random things you'd expect to be simple can be a headache though and require you to research what quirks screen readers have (random example: https://www.powermapper.com/tests/screen-readers/labelling/iframe-title/ https://www.powermapper.com/tests/screen-readers/labelling/i...). It's very similar to how IE, Firefox and Chrome can render and behave differently on the same web page. If you're testing on one screen reader though, you'll still be doing better than most and it'll catch a large portion of potential problems. It'll help with your alt tag dilemma as you'll experience first-hand how annoying useless alt tags are even if big websites are using them.
andrei_says_ 3y ago
> For alt tags, alt="" is appropriate if the image is only decorative or not adding anything that would be useful to someone on a screen reader. Malicious legal firms looking for quick payouts do scan for missing alt tags and file lawsuits based on their absence. Given the option to pay corporate lawyers $$$$/hour to educate judge and jury on the finer points of the WCAG standard and then proving to said judge and jury that the occurrences pointed in the lawsuit meet a subtle distinction, most companies settle for adding text to all alt attributes avoiding the calamity in the first place. At the cost of worse experience for screen reader users of course.

graemep 3y ago

That has been what I have mostly done so far, but the fact that big sites do it and there are no apparent complaints or pushback makes me doubt my approach. Two of the sites I mentioned are trying quite hard, and the other does at least have alt tags. With regard to using screen readers, do I need to use multiple screen readers if they differ?

seanwilson 3y ago
There's some examples here of websites getting in trouble for not being accessible (the Domino's Pizza one is well known) if that helps: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_accessibility#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_accessibility#United_State... > With regard to using screen readers, do I need to use multiple screen readers if they differ? Unfortunately, they all have their own quirks. Alt tags and other basics that are built into HTML should be pretty simple and consistent between screen readers. More custom things like modals and JavaScript interactivity and also random things you'd expect to be simple can be a headache though and require you to research what quirks screen readers have (random example: https://www.powermapper.com/tests/screen-readers/labelling/iframe-title/ https://www.powermapper.com/tests/screen-readers/labelling/i...). It's very similar to how IE, Firefox and Chrome can render and behave differently on the same web page. If you're testing on one screen reader though, you'll still be doing better than most and it'll catch a large portion of potential problems. It'll help with your alt tag dilemma as you'll experience first-hand how annoying useless alt tags are even if big websites are using them.

andrei_says_ 3y ago

> For alt tags, alt="" is appropriate if the image is only decorative or not adding anything that would be useful to someone on a screen reader. Malicious legal firms looking for quick payouts do scan for missing alt tags and file lawsuits based on their absence. Given the option to pay corporate lawyers $$$$/hour to educate judge and jury on the finer points of the WCAG standard and then proving to said judge and jury that the occurrences pointed in the lawsuit meet a subtle distinction, most companies settle for adding text to all alt attributes avoiding the calamity in the first place. At the cost of worse experience for screen reader users of course.