Provide adjacent long descriptions for complex images
no. 058
Make sure complex images have full descriptions provided next to them
Once a complex image has been assigned an ALT attribute value that properly describes its purpose or nature, the next step is to also fully describe the content of this image in text, so users of assistive technologies can have access to the details, despite their inability to actually see the image. This way, whenever an image cannot be interpreted, users can always rely on a fall back in text, providing the same level of information.
To do so, simply transcribe the content of the complex image in text right next to the image, and use HTML markup to properly structure the information in a format that can easily and reliably be conveyed to assistive technologies. In order not to overload the page, consider providing an assistive technology compatible collapse/expand mechanism, allowing users to display the description at their discretion. Not only will this text description allow users to learn about the image’s content, it will also allow that same content to be indexed by search engines, providing additional valuable content about the page in the process.
User Story
As a non-sighted user using [...]