Image Accessibility 101: What is it and why is it important?

Web accessibility is a very important, but often times over looked topic in the world of web development. When done properly, it allows as many people as possible to use the web and it makes the user experience more efficient and pleasant for everyone, not just those with a disability.

Image accessibility is a small piece of this, but it can contribute greatly to the overall accessibility of your site and how users understand and interact with the content. Making your site's images as accessible as possible goes way beyond just making sure that the image has alt text. The text that gets put, or not put, inside of the alt attribute varies greatly based on the purpose of the image and the content that surrounds it.

The following series is a look into the seven purposes an image can serve on a site and how to approach writing the most effective alt texts in each case in order to help make your site as accessible as possible.