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Are bad graphical descriptions better than no graphical descriptions to someone with vision loss?
More than 125K global websites use overlays rather than fixing their accessibility bugs. AI-generated alt-text used by overlays is not 100 % reliable.
Authors note: Because of Medium’s refusal to address its accessibility issues for both authors and readers, I’ve moved my last three years of blogs to Substack. Please sign up there for notices of all new articles. Also, I will be updating older articles (like this one) and the updates will only be published on Substack. Thank you for your continued readership and support.
This is the first part of a two-part article. The second part, “Are bad captions better than no captions” can be read here.
In previous articles on graphical descriptions (known as alt text), I described the importance of accurate and succinct alt-text to people with disabilities who have vision loss.
I was recently sent a link to a public web page from one of the overlay companies that commented favorably on automatic, AI-based alt-text generation. I will not name this company, as I am hearing second-hand that they are now having their lawyers write cease and desist letters to people who are publicly critical of them.
I will digress here to make sure my position on overlays is crystal clear.
The title of the first of many articles I wrote on this topic was called Overlays Are Not the Solution to Your Accessibility Problems.
I am also a recent signatory (along with 200+ others) to OverlayFactSheet.com. In addition to containing a list of reasons not to use overlays, OverlayFactSheet.com also contains a list of accessibility professionals advocating against the use of overlays.
If my thoughts have changed since this article was written over a year ago, my perspective on overlays (aka accessibility tools, widgets, plugins, “one line of code accessibility solutions”) is even more pessimistic now than it was in January 2020. This…
