Flower in the Mirror, Moon on the Water: Bridging Perspectives on Alternative Text and Recommendations for Practice

Abstract

Alternative text (alt text) is one of the most prevalent Web accessibility barriers affecting a wide range of media. Despite manifold efforts addressing its absence, recent work highlighted that unsuitable alt text is equally problematic and is underpinned by a lack of understanding and guidelines on what constitutes suitable alt text. In this work, we present an empirical exploratory study that investigates perceptions of Web content creators and visually impaired users on suitable alt text to bridge the functional gap between experiences and best available practice. Following a qualitative approach, 11 Web content creators and 11 visually impaired users were interviewed, and findings are reported on Web accessibility via screen readers and reasons for its deprioritization, WCAG conformance, and perceptions on alt text authorship, and suitability. The first much-needed trainability and suitability recommendations for alt text suitability are further proposed, and avenues for future work are discussed.