Are Your Web Images Accessible to Users with Visual Disabilities?

November 11th, 2005

Not everyone who visits your Web site can see the page. Some people with visual disabilities use screen readers to have the page read to them. For this reason, it’s important that you include alternate text with each of your images.

To add alternate text to your images:

  1. Select the image.
  2. Click into the Alt Text field in the Property Inspector and type a phrase that identifies or describes the image.

If you are sufficiently compulsive, you will remember to do this every time you add an image to a page.

If you tend to slack off when it comes to details like this, you can set a preference in Dreamweaver that forces you to add alternate text every time you add an image to a page.

To turn on the Image Accessibility prompt:

  1. Select Edit | Preferences.
  2. Select Accessibility from the Category List.
  3. Add a check to the Images checkbox in the Show attributes when inserting list.
  4. Click OK.
  5. When you add an image to a page, Dreamweaver will display the following prompt:

    6. Image Accessibility Prompt

    The screen reader reads the information you enter in the Alternate text field. You should limit your entry to around 50 characters. For longer descriptions, consider providing a link, in the Long description field, to a file that gives more information about the image.

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