RE: Thoughts on professional portrait (headshot) images?

Hi Casey,

For what it's worth, I've seen lots of pushback from the community regarding the trend of describing speakers at a conferences. I liken your question to this.

While I'm sure some would enjoy this, it's hard to say if this would be widely supported by AT users.

It would be interesting to hear from others.

Chris O'Brien
Director of Accessibility
Legal and Litigation




OLG Internal
From: Hickey, Casey <ca.hickey@northeastern.edu>
Sent: Friday, August 19, 2022 10:22 AM
To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: Thoughts on professional portrait (headshot) images?

This email originated outside of OLG. Do not open attachments or click links unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
Hello WAI-IG,

I've been giving some thought to whether headshot images should include alt text, especially when they're adjacent to the pictured individual's name.

I've seen some opinions that say the image is meaningful because it's conveying an impression. I also recognize that adding alt text to a series of profiles like this could weigh down the screen reader experience with seemingly redundant information.

I'm leaning toward the latter, but I'd like to hear opinions/perspective from the group, or any information that there's a standard/codified best practice here.

WAI's examples for Informative Images<https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2FWAI%2Ftutorials%2Fimages%2Finformative%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cchrobrien%40olg.ca%7C09257d79d0ea4cb8bbb408da82042dd3%7Cf271d9b4e54c46e182bd25d50afa3779%7C0%7C0%7C637965251847796476%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=x9Of5Fjai0UR4Pl0ZvWNLpJu6NK%2BPFcETX34x5JnA90%3D&reserved=0> and Decorative Images<https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2FWAI%2Ftutorials%2Fimages%2Fdecorative%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cchrobrien%40olg.ca%7C09257d79d0ea4cb8bbb408da82042dd3%7Cf271d9b4e54c46e182bd25d50afa3779%7C0%7C0%7C637965251847796476%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=e9Cgezm6ocbswdzISOXp7kJKinvq30U8hP1MGpigIx8%3D&reserved=0> both come close, but neither directly address this use case.

w3.org's People directory<https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2FPeople&data=05%7C01%7Cchrobrien%40olg.ca%7C09257d79d0ea4cb8bbb408da82042dd3%7Cf271d9b4e54c46e182bd25d50afa3779%7C0%7C0%7C637965251847796476%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=nQ3wOKG3aM7s1cK%2B3ve6Ki0KeWH5E%2FAQXC0hiplqLCk%3D&reserved=0> uses "Photo of [first name] [last name]" as its alt text, which leads me to second-guess my instinct here.

Thank you for any thoughts.

Casey Hickey
Digital Accessibility Manager
Information Technology Services
Northeastern University