♕White Hat SEO Is writing an alt text for images even needed anymore?

[UnusualSubstance]

I ask because surely in 2026 Google can use its own multimodal models to generate a more accurate alt text itself anyway.

I mean OCR has been around a while as well.

Maybe I'm missing something.

 

[t2van]

I ask because surely in 2026 Google can use its own multimodal models to generate a more accurate alt text itself anyway.

I mean OCR has been around a while as well.

Maybe I'm missing something.

Apart from screen readers.

It's a UK/EU and USA law for disability / accessibility I think if memory serves it was always a disability thing since the 1990s and then UK/EU law made it part of the accessibility act in 2020-24 something like that where there is actual enforcement someone can take against you for not having it.

I don't recall when USA passed it where enforcement can be taken I think it was much sooner - I'm not exactly sure on that one.

So yeah it's needed.

 

[Zwielicht]

Apart from screen readers.

It's a UK/EU and USA law for disability / accessibility I think if memory serves it was always a disability thing since the 1990s and then UK/EU law made it part of the accessibility act in 2020-24 something like that where there is actual enforcement someone can take against you for not having it.

I don't recall when USA passed it where enforcement can be taken I think it was much sooner - I'm not exactly sure on that one.

So yeah it's needed.

There was a member I used to message on BHW who used JAWS screen reader because he was blind. He was telling me how much accurate alt text on images helped him.

It makes a big difference for those people.

In the US, ADA is the one who enforces digital accessibility, so it's a thing here, too.

 

[Outlaw]

"A picture of some blue-toned anime b*tches"

Would you not rather that than ".webp"

Also pushes for good insight into properly structuring pages, even if you don't want to be a good egg for helping the visually/audio-impaired

 

[chaktty]

I think it is. I do insert alt text so I'm able to customize it for humans and web crawlers.

 

[Outlaw]

I think it is. I do insert alt text so I'm able to customize it for humans and web crawlers.

Waheyy, I like this

Google sheets exports get a lot less stressful