How do you add Image Alt Text to Section Backgrounds?

Site URL: https://www.bondprosper.com/london-property-market

Title says it all, How do you add Image Alt Text to Section Backgrounds?

For example, on my London page, the first image is a background image of St Pauls Cathedral.  

https://www.bondprosper.com/london-property-market

You mean add alt text, or add a small text under background image?

20 hours ago, tuanphan said:

You mean add alt text, or add a small text under background image?

I mean add Alt text to the background image.  There's nowhere in the settings to add the text unlike with normal image settinds.  Is it possible to code the alt text to the image in the custom CSS?

I'm wondering the same thing regarding background images in blocks in 7.1. My colleague who uses a screen reader said there is absolutely no way to tell there is an image. This is an accessibility issue!

@herobirthservices

You mention both background and block images.

Image blocks do have an optional file name that can be set which translates to the alt text.

It does appear that background images for sections do not get an alt text. At the very least they could add the file name in alt text. Even better would be to add the optional file name field to the background image settings dialog.

FYI @tcp13 works for an company that makes accessibility software for SS sites if you need such software.

I just don't understand why Squarespace haven't coded the platform to allow for this.  Seems exclusive to those who use screen readers, and could also affect SEO.  

On 5/27/2021 at 8:34 PM, creedon said:

FYI @tcp13 works for an company that makes accessibility software for SS sites if you need such software.

Hey hey! I'm a certified Web Accessibility Specialist and the founder of Square ADA. Great question @KickinGa!

WCAG (the golden standard of web accessibility) actually states in SC 1.1.1 that if an image is "pure decoration" or "used only for visual formatting," then it should be "implemented in a way that it can be ignored by assistive technology."

Translation - If the image isn't communicating any meaningful information, then we assign a null alt attribute to tell screen readers it's okay to skip the image (WCAG Technique H67). When used correctly, null alt text provides a better experience, since blind folks typically don't care about every little decorative icon or scenic background photo when trying to find information on your site.

In the case of the 7.1 site you linked (and @herobirthservices mentioned), the null alt tag is already assigned by Squarespace on all background images. So from an accessibility standpoint, this is technically compliant.

However, if there's meaningful content in the background image that needed to be assigned alt text (such as using an image of text), you could use custom code to override the default null value:

<!-- jQuery -->
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.5.0.min.js"></script>

<!-- Override Alt Text Value -->
<script>
  $(document).ready(function(){
    $("section[data-section-id='5f5726f0974f98058a7f632f'] .section-background img").attr("alt", "Lorem Ipsum");
  });
</script>

Hope this helps!
-Tyler

Hey Squarespace team, I'd like to bring this back to visibility. Can we get a spot to add alt text to our background images?

When I do a spider crawl of my page it's showing this result for the background image

Most of the template designs encourage the use of striking images, even when they are backgrounds, and often they will contain pertinent graphic information.  I agree there should be an alt text option for these.

Making another request that background images be given the option for alt text.

As @tcp13 mentioned, there may be a null alt tag assigned to background images which makes them technically compliant, but they still get caught by accessibility scanners.

Clients in industries which tend to be concerned with compliance do not understand this.

Count me in as a "bumper" for this topic.

Bumping this topic. Accessibility is important, especially when we promote such visual-heavy templates!