Decorative and redundant images are those that do not add information to a page’s content or are described within the text and in close proximity to the image. They are primarily used to enhance the look-n-feel of a page.
Examples include spacer images, decorative bullet images, background images, an image with a detailed description right beneath it etc. In these cases, an empty alt text attribute (alt=””) should be supplied so they can be ignored by assistive technologies.
How to Implement
Pearson uses Alfresco which is a core asset management system where assets such as text files, images, audio, and video files are stored. Alfresco serves as our central content management platform which allows images and the corresponding alt text to flow directly into all content creation tools.
Currently, Alfresco does not have the functionality to mark images as decorative. Some platforms like CYPRESS will process a blank alternative text field and it will add the correct coding, but not all tools will perform this function. Do NOT add the coding alt=”” to the alt text field in Alfresco (or other authoring tools), it will result in system error flags and/or Jira bugs down the pipeline.
Until this issue is resolved, the Higher Ed Accessibility Team recommends assigning short, concise, descriptive alt text to decorative images within the Alfresco system. This will ensure images flow from Alfresco to your content authoring tool without issues. Using the words “decorative image” for alt text is not descriptive and should be avoided. Make sure the alt text is unique to the image.
We understand that assigning alt text to decorative images does not foster the best user experience for students who use assistive technology but under our current limitations within Alfresco, this is the best resolution for now.
Note: CYPRESS has been updated and now has the functionality to select “decorative image” under the settings menu. When selecting “decorative image” this will trigger the backend to code the image with the null attribute alt=””.
Dated: 2023-12-01