Alt Text & AI: Yay or Nay? | Upcoming Webinar

AI is everywhere now. You can’t escape it, and it is rapidly shifting the digital space and accessibility.

It can seem innocuous to use an AI alt tag generator, saving you precious seconds, but is it really?

Join us for something slightly different on August 7 at 2 PM EST as we explore alt text and AI. We’ll examine how it’s currently used, and the potential and pitfalls of using AI-generated alt text.

We’ll be going through the images below to discuss:

• Is it a decorative or meaningful image?
• What’s the AI-generated alt text?
• Is that generated text accurate, misleading, or even necessary?
• What improvements, if any, could be made?

ChatGPT generated these alt texts using a general prompt and attached image: “can you generate an alt text for this.”

Generated Alt Text: Kermit the Frog, a green puppet character, is sitting indoors near a window and sipping from a clear glass cup filled with tea. The tea bag label is visible and shows the Lipton logo. Sunlight streams through the window, casting a warm glow on the scene.

Generated Alt Text: A group of five kittens cuddled together on a soft, colorful blanket. Most of the kittens are sleeping peacefully, while the fluffy dark kitten in the center stretches with its mouth wide open as if yawning or meowing. A mother cat is nuzzling one of the kittens affectionately.

Generated Alt Text: Golden Labrador retriever wearing an orange and black service dog vest sits on a leaf-covered path in a park during autumn, with red and orange foliage in the background. The dog is looking at the camera with its tongue out and appears calm and alert.

Generated Alt Text: Colorful illustration of overlapping human silhouettes filled with various vibrant patterns including stripes, polka dots, grids, scribbles, and handwritten text, symbolizing diversity and individuality.

Using the prompt: “Can you create alt text for the first three images on this site? https://accessibleweb.com/”

1. Hero-style service overview slides (Image 1)
   Alt text: “Overlapping graphic slides titled ‘Manual Audits,’ ‘Accessibility Remediation Support,’ and ‘Accessibility Testing,’ each with a relevant icon—a magnifying glass, a handshake, and a screen with a checkmark—on a soft yellow background.”
2. RAMP remediation task dashboard screenshot (Image 2)
   Alt text: “Screenshot of a RAMP interface showing a remediation task panel: left sidebar navigation in blue, main content listing a success criteria, failure summary, recommendation, and thumbnail screenshot for a website accessibility issue.”
3. Accessible Web logo with icons (Image 3)
   Alt text: “Accessible Web logo featuring the word ‘ACCESSIBLE’ above four colored squares—speech bubble, pointing hand, keyboard, ear—over the bold text ‘WEB’ on a white background.”