Beyond “99 Red Balloons”- A Pragmatic Guide to Alternative Text

We love to include images on our websites and digital assets. Images support and add context to our information and concepts. They can act as visual cues and help some users orient themselves on a page. Media, especially social media, include images for conversions; having images on posts leads to a higher clickthrough rate and ROI (return on investment).

Images can be simple and easy to add alternative text, but they can also be more complex like infographics, charts, or maps.

Let’s take a nostalgic walk through some imagery from the 80s music scene and ensure our alt text conveys the information in a meaningful way for those who cannot access the images visually. From 99 Red Balloons shaking us all night long, to Burning Down the House we don’t want to leave any of our users behind.

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By AmyJune Hineline

AmyJune currently works with the Linux Foundation as their Certificate Community Architect. She is responsible for supporting the Certification team’s efforts in building and maintaining exams and related documentation for exam products in the Linux Foundation’s certification portfolio. She is a Drupal core mentor. She has the unique privilege of being a non-code developer and has the ability to bridge the gap between the technical writers, the coders, the developers, and the designers and connect them with first-time contributors with skill sets that match their specific contribution needs. AmyJune helps communities discover how they can contribute and belong in more ways than code. Her ongoing experience as a hospice nurse keeps her in touch with the challenges faced by many end-users. In her continued efforts to make a difference, she helps organize A11yTalks, an online meetup that advocates all things accessibility - one of the core components of building an inclusive web. Outside of her mission in the technology community space, she has a deep love for mycology, geocaching, and air-cooled Volkswagens. Her ability to spell diarrhea without the aid of spell check has won the hearts of millions.