Mobile Accessibility Guidelines - Images
Background images must
Background images that convey information or meaning must have an accessible alternative.
Background images are not available to assistive technology such as screen readers and are not supported on devices with minimal support for CSS. Additionally, a background image may not load.
It is not possible to directly assign alternative text to a CSS background image. Another method must also be used to provide the same information visibly, and in a way that is programmatically determinable by assistive technology, such as screen readers.
iOS
iOS does not distinguish between background and foreground images. All images added to a view are generally added as an Image View (UIImageView
). If the resulting image is decorative, you must set the isAccessibilityElement
property to false
so that it is not identifiable to VoiceOver. Optionally, provide an βemptyβ accessibilityLabel
. If the resulting image conveys information, you must set this property to true
, and also provide a text equivalent through the accessibilityLabel
attribute.
iOS Example (Objective-C)
Meaningful image:
[myFunctionalImage:setIsAccessibilityElement:YES];
[myFunctionalImage.setAccessibilityLabel:@"[alternative text]";
Decorative image:
[myFunctionalImage:setIsAccessibilityElement:NO];
[myFunctionalImage.setAccessibilityLabel:@""];
Android
Android does not distinguish between background and foreground images. All images added to a view are generally added as an ImageView
, and must be provided with the android:focusable
attribute. This attribute must be set to true
for meaningful images, and false
for non-functional, decorative images. The android:contentDescription
attribute must also be provided for meaningful images to provide alternative text for the image. It must also be provided to decorative images and set to a value of @null
in order to support older versions of Android.
Android Pass Example
Meaningful image:
<ImageView
android:id="@+id/myFunctionalImage"
android:src="@drawable/[myFunctionalImage source]"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:focusable="true"
android:contentDescription="[Alternative text]" />
Decorative image:
<ImageView
android:id="@+id/myNonFunctionalImage"
android:src="@drawable/[myNonFunctionalImage source]"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:focusable="false"
android:contentDescription="@null" />
HTML
There is no specific technique for assigning alternative text to CSS-based background images. Therefore, either use an HTML-based inline image (using the img
element), or a suitable image replacement technique in CSS and JavaScript to provide a text alternative. Refer to for an example implementation.
HTML Pass Example
Native (preferable) approach:
<a href="home.htm"><img src="home_page_logo.png" alt="ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ page"></a>
Testing
Procedures
- Activate a screen reader.
- Identify all images which contain information.
- Identify which images are background images.
- Verify that alternative text is announced by a screen reader.
- In some cases this may require checking the code or testing on a non-mobile device.
Outcome
The following check is true:
- The image can be focused using assistive technology and meaningful information is announced.