Current accessibility guidelines state that you should provide text alternatives for any nontext content in Web pages. List at least three related, special instructions on this point.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

• Controls or inputs. If nontext content is used as a control (such as a button), use the alt text to explain its purpose.
• Decoration and formatting. If nontext content is purely decorative, use it in a way that enables assistive devices to ignore it. For example, the background images in the container and content divs do not have alternate text and can be ignored by assistive devices because they are used as background images.
• Conveys information. If nontext content conveys information, you should also provide that information in an accessible way-a short alt text description, and if necessary, an in-depth description. For example, designers often include a paragraph above or below an image that conveys the image's information. When Dreamweaver prompts you to provide the short alt text description, it also enables you to create a link to an in-depth description that you can use to provide detailed information, if necessary.
• Images of text. To conform to the strictest level of accessibility guidelines, images of text (or text that is actually a graphic such as a button that contains text) should be used only for pure decoration.