Re: Thoughts on professional portrait (headshot) images?

John,

Thanks for this thoughtful response. I’d love to see an augmentative image category added to WAI’s guidance for images in the page(s) I previously shared. In working with page templates and pattern libraries, I’ve been challenged by many scenarios where images often live in the space between decorative and informational. And when folks don’t feel confident about that choice, I fear the answer might be to err on the side of adding alt text even when it’s not helpful, as that could be considered the “safer” option. (Safer from an auditing/compliance standpoint, not from the standpoint of making the right decision).

Thanks again for responding, the insight is helpful and appreciated.

Casey

From: John Foliot <john@foliot.ca>
Date: Friday, August 19, 2022 at 3:23 PM
To: Hickey, Casey <ca.hickey@northeastern.edu>
Cc: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Subject: Re: Thoughts on professional portrait (headshot) images?
Hi Casey,

> w3.org’s People directory<https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2FPeople&data=05%7C01%7Cca.hickey%40northeastern.edu%7C8c93a4472a714600a3f708da8218553f%7Ca8eec281aaa34daeac9b9a398b9215e7%7C0%7C0%7C637965338264775190%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=cE8tXOWpfoM6jxJoPtyNBnhVAlc%2BkewO%2FZx3kiW57Xo%3D&reserved=0> uses “Photo of [first name] [last name]” as its alt text

Yep. This topic has gone around before, and there really is no definitive answer, however I will suggest that in context, it is helpful to provide alt text in this scenario, as the photo of the person is (again, in context) an important part of the overall "Bio sheet" content.

I've offered the following justification in the past: although a non-sighted user will not see the image, a head-shot image is actually a *VERY* important graphic file. Non-sighted users MAY want to show the photo to a sighted colleague ("I want to meet this person" or "I need a photo of Joe for this report I am writing for my manager" of similar types of uses), and so in context it is NOT a decorative image (if we had to label it, it is an "augmentative" image - not one of the 4 common categories of images). So the "SEO" aspect here is also an important consideration at a higher level.

While I am not a daily screen reader myself, I do not think that most non-sighted users will be overly chuffed over a small bit of alternative text in this case - remember as well that it is trivial to skip past images and image alt-texts when using a screenreader, so on balance, while your concern over overt verbosity is appreciated, I'll venture to suggest it isn't an issue here.

My $0.02 - your mileage may vary.

JF

On Fri, Aug 19, 2022 at 10:21 AM Hickey, Casey <ca.hickey@northeastern.edu<mailto:ca.hickey@northeastern.edu>> wrote:
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://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2FWAI%2Ftutorials%2Fimages%2Finformative%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cca.hickey%40northeastern.edu%7C8c93a4472a714600a3f708da8218553f%7Ca8eec281aaa34daeac9b9a398b9215e7%7C0%7C0%7C637965338264775190%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=c4SqzPZLBA1IV4TVjKRdV5o7E0YhZb8ZIuZndxUr06k%3D&reserved=0> and Decorative Images<https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2FWAI%2Ftutorials%2Fimages%2Fdecorative%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cca.hickey%40northeastern.edu%7C8c93a4472a714600a3f708da8218553f%7Ca8eec281aaa34daeac9b9a398b9215e7%7C0%7C0%7C637965338264931857%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=ETki0sW1rwxBeD7%2B6AvswKnu%2FtidjgGPSxy%2BFiZCqgk%3D&reserved=0> both come close, but neither directly address this use case.

w3.org’s People directory<https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2FPeople&data=05%7C01%7Cca.hickey%40northeastern.edu%7C8c93a4472a714600a3f708da8218553f%7Ca8eec281aaa34daeac9b9a398b9215e7%7C0%7C0%7C637965338264931857%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=pT4xtuubctvASYyDK%2BvC4pbiu8hME6KBuZa49s68b5U%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


--
John Foliot |
Senior Industry Specialist, Digital Accessibility |
W3C Accessibility Standards Contributor |
"I made this so long because I did not have time to make it shorter." - Pascal "links go places, buttons do things"