The Role of Alt Text in PDF Accessibility

Introduction

The Actual Text attribute is used for text rendered in a way that a screen reader can not interpret, such as a graphic or a character that does not map to Unicode. The actual text is usually brief—it consists of only one character—and can be used inline, for example, as a word or even a paragraph. A drop cap or an unconventional list bullet are two examples. When using assistive technology, such as screen readers, people with impairments can read and navigate an accessible PDF. The PDF must also adhere to all recommended standards for reading order, color/contrast, and navigation. Authors must remember a few things in order to make a PDF accessible, such as properly tagging, describing, and providing alt text. Images may convey information using alternate text, or alt text. Screen reader software relies on the alt text to make images readable for people who are blind or visually impaired because it is unable to interpret images.

Understanding PDF Accessibility

The process of generating and editing documents so that individuals with disabilities can access and comprehend the information they contain is known as portable document format or PDF. PDF files are typically used to share and distribute documents among various devices and platforms. On the other hand, they might present significant challenges to people with visual or cognitive impairments or other accessibility issues. According to these guidelines, embedded audio and video must have captioning, images and graphics must have alt-text, and headers and links must have navigation functionality. 

PDFs are typically created from a source document, such as a Microsoft Word, Adobe InDesign, or Microsoft PowerPoint file, and then exported into the PDF format. On the other hand, many PDF files are just text images made through document scanning from hard copies Unfortunately, PDFs that are based on images cannot be accessed at all without first being converted into text using optical character recognition (OCR) software.

What is Alt Text?

Alt” is short for alternative, and in the context of the text, it typically refers to alternative text or alt text. On a webpage, alt text is a brief description that appears next to an image, graphic, or other visual content. When an image on a webpage doesn’t load properly for a user, alt text—written text—takes its place. This content facilitates improved crawling and ranking of your website by search engines and helps screen-reading technologies describe photos to visually challenged viewers. Alt text is a technique that search engines like Google use to choose what images to show or connect to. This could improve their comprehension of your material.

The Importance of Alt Text in PDFs

• Screen reader users: Many people who are blind or have low vision use screen readers to consume online content. Users of screen readers may miss important information provided by photos if alt text is not there.. Since screen readers typically read out the file names for images that lack alt text, failing to provide these descriptions also causes unnecessary disruption to users’ experiences.
• People with cognitive disabilities: alt text describes what a picture shows to visitors who are not able to view it, which improves accessibility. 

How Alt Text Works in PDFs

Technical Explanation 

Alt text in PDFs is embedded within the document’s metadata. Screen readers access this metadata to read out descriptions of images, ensuring that all users receive the same information, regardless of their ability to see the images.

Best Practices for Writing Alt Text

When it comes to writing alt text, it’s essential that you make it the best it can be to achieve positive results. To help you with this, below are the 10 best tips on how to write good alt text. 

• Describe the image, and be specific:- Use both the image’s subject and context to guide you.
• Don’t repeat yourself:- Alt text isn’t needed if it’s already on the page. For example, an adjacent caption.
• Do pay attention to your image’s file name:- People who use screen readers can set their preferences to read the file name. The file name will be visible to anybody who downloads, saves, or otherwise retrieves the image. Another method to help with organization, increase accessibility, and offer information is through clear and pertinent file names.
• Length of the text alternative:-  The alt text should be the most concise description possible of the image’s purpose. If more than one short phrase or word is required,

Common Mistakes in Alt Text Creation

Writing alt text is an art that may be developed with practice and following recommended guidelines. You may create excellent alt text for photos by following the advice given.

• Describing what is shown, not the intent: sufficiently conveys the intent of the image, giving a non-sighted user a much closer experience to that of a sighted one.
• Using the word “image”: One of the most common mistakes is to begin an alt text description of an image with the phrase “graphic of” or “image of.”.
• Keep descriptions short and simple: It is best practice to make image descriptions as short as possible so screen reader users will not have to listen to overly long descriptions. Don’t include too much information; just enough to enable screen reader users to understand the visual content.

Conclusion

Alt text is essential for people with disabilities, particularly those with vision impairments or blindness, who use screen readers and braille displays to access websites and web applications. In order to aid viewers in understanding the image’s content, screen readers read aloud the alt text. Without alt text, screen readers can’t describe the image, leaving the user in the dark. However, alt text is just one of many accessibility features teams need to consider when creating accessible websites. By combining modern tools for testing and monitoring your digital properties with professional managed services like manual evaluation, design reviews, and strategic assistance, Level Access’ digital accessibility solution can accelerate your progress.

DTP Labs is a desktop publishing company based in New Delhi, India. We offer book publishing Services, PDF to Word conversions, post-translation DTP, and e-learning localization services to translation agencies worldwide. To avail of our services, check out our website www.dtplabs.com, or contact us at info@dtplabs.com.