Accessibility and inclusion: Accessibility with the image content block
Web accessibility has always been a requirement for UMaine websites, and has been a regular feature in our monthly newsletter. Ensuring your content is accessible is part of an inclusive communication strategy.
Using the image content block to add visual interest to your page is a great feature of our website. At the same time, accessibility concerns must be addressed when making use of this feature.
Ensure images in your media library have proper alt text
Text alternatives are required for all images on our website, and the image content block uses the “alt text” that is added as an attribute to the image in the WordPress media library. The best time to add this text is when uploading a new image— that ensures that there is alt text available when that image is used again in the future.
Proper contrast is needed when displaying text over an image
The image content block has several layout options, many of which allow the text to be superimposed on the image. Whenever text appears over an image, there should be proper contrast between the text and the image underneath, to ensure proper readability. For this reason, there are options that will display that text directly underneath the image, which allows for more flexibility in image choice without worrying about readability of that text.