The NUJ Disabled Members' Council welcomes new BBC guidance on accessible images
The guidance launched by the BBC outlines how to make images and visual data accessible, especially for people who use screen readers to access information online.
The project was led by NUJ DMC vice-chair Johny Cassidy, who works for the BBC News Digital Special Projects team. Created for BBC staff, the guidance has been shared to encourage the wider industry to take action to improve the accessibility of visual content.
The NUJ Disabled Members’ Council said:
“Ensuring images and visual data journalism are fully accessible is crucial to providing an equitable experience for blind and visually impaired people. We encourage all publishers, journalists and content creators to read and apply this straightforward guidance to make accessible images and visual data journalism commonplace.”
Use the BBC’s guidance on writing text descriptions (alt text) to write text descriptions for decorative, informative and functional images and more complex visual data such as charts and infographics. It also includes a handy checklist.
Find out more about the project by reading Johny Cassidy’s article on digital accessibility in the Press Gazette.