In a zoom #UX #A11y #UniversalDesign meetup this week we were discussing alt "tags" and descriptive text. I became anxious about how our industry is nearing 30 years and why alt - introduced in HTML 2.0 (1995) is still misunderstood. What do you think factors in to why this is?
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I guess there are not many stories for public reference that share how ALT tags saved an org or a community, and another set of stories for how missing ALT tags brought a business downfall.
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Replying to @vingar
Folks in Web Standards and #a11y have made the business case repeatedly. Your use of the slang "ALT tag" is indicative of education fail in HTML as a language. It's an attribute. We don't learn syntax, nomenclature. We're not encouraged to teach actual languages. Techniques sell.

Apr 24, 2021 路 5:40 AM UTC

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Replying to @mholzschlag
True but the stories have been confined to the Web Standards or HTML folks. So much content is being designed & published by folks in content, marketing, branding who live outside the Web Standards orbit. Need broad stories for different types of content producers and publishers.
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Indeed! I also think ableism factors in, the "tack it on" problem, no funds for user testing, reliance on audits without knowledge of why an error is an error, no edu rubric, and a technology problem with site/app complexities and more. Hence my ask :)
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