Labels & alternative texts
Problem
In applications, screen readers often provide unclear descriptions for non-textual elements. For example, the screen reader may only indicate “image” for an informative image, or may not indicate anything at all. This is because elements such as buttons, icons, and images have no or unusable labels or alternative texts.
Another issue is that users who use a screen reader have to perform multiple actions to navigate through an application, because decorative images without relevant information are still included by screen readers.
Goal
- Every non-textual element (buttons, icons, images) must have descriptive alternative text.
- Decorative elements are excluded from the semantic tree.
- Interactive elements are given labels that correspond to the visible text.
- When an element has a visible text label, its accessible name must contain that visible text so that speech-input users can activate it by saying what they see.
- Labels must not rely on sensory characteristics alone (color, shape, position) to identify elements.