RE: Thoughts on professional portrait (headshot) images?

Steve, No, I don't say I know what the user wants - not any single user or,
often, even what the majority of users might want. I'm saying that if we
don't tell screen reader users that the headshot image is there (because we
give the images empty alt texts on the grounds that we think the images are
just decorative), then screen readers won't announce the images and the
blind person won't know photos are there. Whereas if we give them an alt
text, even if it's just "Photo: [Name]" (and I think we should actually say
more than that, but that's another matter), then blind people can, for
instance, ask a friend what the person in the photo looks like - Is it a
man or a woman?, Are they young or old?, whatever information from the
image the blind person wants to know - head shots always provide quite a
lot of information, in actual fact.

In other words, I'm saying we should let the user decide if they want the
information, not take the decision out of their hands by hiding the image.
As for speed of reading, I don't think that matters, because screen reader
users don't have to listen to the alt texts - they can just press the down
arrow to interrupt and move on to the next item if they choose.

Just as an example of the use of head shots, if I phone someone at a
company I always want to know if they are male or female, so if that's not
obvious from the name I often check the head shots (if any) on the website.
Because if I ask for "Mr. Jones" but the person I want is actually a woman,
the switchboard will put me through to the wrong person, or say they are
out (i.e. the man's out when the person I want is in).

In the days when I still applied for jobs and went for interviews, I would
always look up the person I was going to see on their website to see if
they had a photo there, a) so I would recognise them when I saw them and b)
I would feel more at ease meeting them if I already knew what to expect. On
the other hand, a young girl, applying for a job, might look at the photos
of the employees, see they are all older men with no women there, and
decide it's not for her (or alternatively decide it's just what she wants,
whichever!)

There is a whole range of reasons why someone might want to see the head
shots or, in the case of a blind person, ask a friend about the photos. I
hope this clarifies what I was saying.