Putting An 'Alt' To Blind Web Sites

We've covered in previous stories the importance of including effective meta data and using opportunities such as image description 'alt tags' to assist in search engine optimisation.

From, the United States comes this story about how a lack of 'alt tags' on images of catalogue items in the Target web site has come with a $6 million price tag.

Dave Chartier at Ars Technica explains, "Specifically at issue in Target's case is a lack of 'alt' tags throughout its site, tags which are used by screen reading technology to help disabled users navigate web sites."

As part of the settlement, Target will have to make employees responsible for coding its site attend periodic accessibility training sessions conducted by the National Federation for the Blind. Target has to pay them for this as well.

This case will likely have a large impact on eCommerce as a whole. More lawsuits will probably start coming out of the woodwork. Online retailers will scramble to get their sites within compliance. Accessibility experts will start getting exponentially increased business for their consulting services. The blind will no longer be ignored on the web.

Australian web site managers are not immune either.

The international nature of the Internet means that an Australian site popular with overseas visitors may too get caught in the net. Also, legal precedents overseas generally end up in Australian law too.

The fact of the matter is, it takes no time at all to add 'alt tags' and web developers should be doing it as a matter of course. Web site copywriters should also work with web developers as well as the people responsible for photo selection to use the opportunity to use 'alt tags' as an effective, additional marketing opportunity.