Specsavers hits out at ALT image trend for misusing accessibility features
Danni Scott
The Mirror
Popular high street eyecare brand Specsavers is known for its humorous
adverts poking fun at glasses wearers who "should have gone to Specsavers".
The brand's online presence is usually quick to hop on trends and engage
in cultural conversation but one Twitter meme has caught the company's
eye - and for the wrong reasons.
On Twitter, people have been posting an image which simply reads "click
here", on a white background, with an arrow to where the image ALT text
can be accessed. Instead of a description, there is a joke or a
punchline to the tweet, which Specsavers criticised.
'I hadn't considered becoming a dad until cancer almost made me
infertile at 19'
The image says "click here" with an arrow pointing to the ALT
description tag in the bottom left corner.
Side note for everybody:
Many Twitter users, including brands, have been using this to prompt
people to open the ALT text, where they have left a joke.
ALT text is a hugely important accessibility tool designed to help
people navigate the internet more easily, so it shouldn't be used as a
punchline. This is especially true if the ALT text doesn't describe the
image, leaving blind and visually impaired people out of the joke.
In the ALT text, Specsavers wrote: "The image says "click here" with an
arrow pointing to the ALT description tag in the bottom left corner.
Alternative text, known as ALT text, provides visually impaired users a
description of the image which can be used in collaboration with
accessibility features like screen readers.
The Twitter trend has been used by various users and some brands to tell
daft jokes, hidden from initial view to those who are not visually impaired.
The problem comes from the joke overriding the alternative description,
with people omitting the picture's description entirely - excluding the
blind and visually impaired users.
Responding to Specsavers, the Royal National Institute of Blind People
wrote: "Exactly this. Thanks for reminding everyone."
Others had been calling out the trend too and one person said: "If
you're a social media manager thinking of using ALT text as a way to be
funny... Please don't. ALT text is used to describe the image for
visually impaired users."
Disabled activist Jeffie Plays added: "It seems to be happening more and
more often that brands think it's okay to misuse alt text like this. Alt
text is an accessibility tool and this is ableism."
Some defended the trend, calling it "harmless" and arguing that visually
impaired users would still be in on the joke as all they'd miss would be
the "click here" of the picture.
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