14/08/2025
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So over the last 6 months I've been auditing websites, as I normally do.
One of the things I always check for is keyword stuffed alt txt for images.
Google has a secret devaluation for this practice when it's egregious.
[We can talk about that, and how I know this, another time though.]
So I started seeing what looks like keyword stuffed alt txt but it isn't, I'm pretty sure it is AI generated alt txt.
When I first saw the features and tools about writing alt txt I thought well it probably can't be that bad. I haven't had the chance to look at them, but probably better than an empty all tag when an alt tag needs content.
I was very, very, very wrong.
First, I urge everybody who's involved in the creation of all txts to go read how they're supposed to be written at a site called https://webaim.org
They have very good simple examples on how the text should be written and are considered one of the gold standards for explaining WCAG requirements.
So when someone is using a screen reader they do not need you to write every detail about the photo in there.
[Also never call it a photo or image it's just redundant.]
So here's a picture I took of my own kitty, Lil Girl*, what I'm seeing in the alt txt when AI writes it is something like this...
"A multicat with stripes on the forehead and gold eyes, pink collar, emerging their face through a circle brown paper, some of it crinkled and some of it not."
This is not good.
If there anyone who thinks that's a good alt text and is using an AI writer that writes like this, turn on a screen reader most computers have a basic one nowadays, and listen to your page.
It will be painful.
Now writing alt txt is an art not a science.
It also depends on the content on the page.
But generally you would write something like this...
"Bengal cat in brown packing paper"
or
"Cat playing in brown paper"
Remember the person using a screen reader gets alt text for every image on the page except for the ones that are decorative.
Imagine getting the first version 10 times, 20 times, 30 times on a page.
It would be brutal.
So please make sure that your AI writer is not creating text like the first one, and if it is, sad to say hire someone to go through and cut it down.
If you think you're just playing to a small market? You are definitely not.
Accessibility users account for hundreds of billions of dollars a year.
Don't make them hate you by 66 them all txts like the one above.
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* Lil Girl passed away from cancer a few years ago.... she was one of the best cats :)