Hi, I’m Jennifer Zhang, and today I’m
going to tell you about text alternatives. People who are blind need descriptions of
meaningful images in our technology to know what they represent. These descriptions are called “text alternatives.” You might be wondering, how much text is too
much, or too little? It depends on the context. On this website, there are two pictures of
a Microsoft Surface Laptop. If we gave both pictures a text alternative
of “Surface,” many people could still be confused. Are the pictures identical? What does “Surface” refer to? The text alternative needs to be longer. Imagine the text alternative for the first
image was, “Burgundy Surface Laptop brings together Windows 10 S with the latest hardware
innovations from Surface to deliver the perfect balance of portability and power in a sleek
design.” That is a very long description. It would take a frustratingly long time for
a screen reader to announce it. Plus, these product details are not essential
to understanding the visual image. The best time to write text alternatives is
during the spec phase of making a website. A good text alternative for the first image
would be “Burgundy Surface Laptop.” The second image could have a text alternative
of “Cobalt Blue Surface Laptop”. These are good text alternatives because they
are concise and accurate. Now the website matches the spec, and the
visual content of the image has been clearly communicated. [Jackpot sound effect] Not all images need a text alternative. Sometimes, the information provided by an
image might be given using adjacent text, such as a caption. These images should be marked as decorative
in the spec. Thanks for your time and attention. To learn more about text alternatives, visit
microsoft.com/accessibility.