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Discussion on: Three Starting Points for Making Accessible Digital Content

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Simon Dell

This is a handy introduction to a deep topic. Good work!

Regarding alt text: it's helpful to think about the context and purpose of the image you're adding alt text to. The alt should provide a text-based, alternative presentation of the meaning of the image, not necessarily a description of the content of the image.

Purely decorative images (e.g. within a button which also has a label) can often use alt="" because the meaning and context are provided by the label or surrounding content. Similarly banner and hero images often don't convey any meaning, so these can also have alt="". If the mood and tone of the page is set by the banner image, then go ahead and describe it.

Company logos typically link back to the home page, so alt="Back to home page" will probably help assistive tech users more than alt="Company Logo".