Stumbled on a stat about alt text usage that blew my mind

I was digging through some old accessibility reports from a government website audit last week (just curiosity, I'm weird like that) and found out that over 60% of images on major news sites still don't have proper alt text. That shocked me, because I always figured the big players had their stuff together by now. I remember back in 2015 working a help desk gig where a coworker showed me how screen readers just say 'image' with no description, and it felt like a huge oversight even then. Fast forward almost a decade and apparently not much has changed, at least not for the top 50 traffic sites. It made me wonder if designers and content folks just forget or if there's a training gap somewhere. Has anyone else noticed this issue creeping up in places you'd expect to be better?

2 comments

2 Comments

jennifer_fisher8d ago

My 2019 study of college course materials showed nearly half the PDFs had missing or broken alt text on key diagrams. That tracks with a pattern I see at grocery stores where automatic doors malfunction or checkout screens lack contrast options. It feels like accessibility gets treated as an afterthought until someone actually needs it, sort of like how nobody notices broken sidewalk ramps until they're pushing a stroller.

robinl908d ago

Question whether it's really that serious, but let me push back a little here. Yeah, accessibility issues exist, but is a broken grocery store door really on the same level as missing alt text in a college class? Seems like a stretch to me. Most people can still get through a door that's a little slow or ask a cashier for help if a screen is hard to read. Same with PDFs - professors usually provide other ways to get the info if someone actually needs it. Feels like this whole "afterthought" thing gets blown way out of proportion when most people just adapt and move on without making a big deal. Maybe we should save the frustration for things that actually stop someone from doing their job or living their day.