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grobert93
Participant
March 17, 2017
Answered

Accessibility questions with Lightroom

  • March 17, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 1172 views

I am a web accessibility specialist for my university, and one of my responsibilities is to train IT and graphic designers how to utilize accessibility tools in their software so the most amount of students possible can access our content successfully. However, upon reviewing Lightroom and after a few google searches, I was unable to find any useful information specifically concerning accessibility features that Lightroom utilizes.

Specifically, I am trying to locate a tool to allow the Lightroom user to add alternative text to a photograph.

Can someone point me to a website with this specific topic covered, or provide me with information needed to properly train our staff?

Thank you,

Robert

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Conrad_C

If you're talking about alternative text specifically on web pages (alt text), since alt is an attribute of the HTML img tag it's part of web page code, not carried with image files. The metadata fields in Lightroom are based on the IPTC standard, which doesn't have an alt text field as far as I know, so Lightroom (and other image organizer applications) don't have a field specifically for alt text. There's no direct connection between IPTC metadata and HTML because the IPTC metadata standard evolved independently of and before the web.

But because alt text is so important for accessibility, some websites can convert one of the provided IPTC fields into alt text. For example, PhotoShelter creates alt tag text from the IPTC Description field (caption) of each uploaded photo. If you were building a PhotoShelter website, in Lightroom you'd make sure the text you enter in the Description/Caption field would make good alt tags.

So the answer to the question is, it depends on what software runs the web sites on which you need alt text for images. If the software has a way to automatically take text from a metadata field and use it as alt text, find out which field or fields it can draw from for that purpose and then enter the alt text into that field in Lightroom. Then, when you use the Export dialog box in Lightroom, be sure to choose a Metadata option that does not strip that field on the way out.

2 replies

Per Berntsen
Community Expert
Per BerntsenCommunity Expert
Community Expert
March 17, 2017

As far as I know, Lightroom cannot add alt text to an image.

Alt text is not metadata, but an attribute for the image tag in html.

So to add alt text to images on a webpage, you have to use a program like Dreamweaver to edit the html - any text editor will also do the job.

The html for an image with the alt attribute will look something like this:

<img src="images/image1.jpg" alt="Alt text goes here"/>

Conrad_C
Community Expert
Conrad_CCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
March 17, 2017

If you're talking about alternative text specifically on web pages (alt text), since alt is an attribute of the HTML img tag it's part of web page code, not carried with image files. The metadata fields in Lightroom are based on the IPTC standard, which doesn't have an alt text field as far as I know, so Lightroom (and other image organizer applications) don't have a field specifically for alt text. There's no direct connection between IPTC metadata and HTML because the IPTC metadata standard evolved independently of and before the web.

But because alt text is so important for accessibility, some websites can convert one of the provided IPTC fields into alt text. For example, PhotoShelter creates alt tag text from the IPTC Description field (caption) of each uploaded photo. If you were building a PhotoShelter website, in Lightroom you'd make sure the text you enter in the Description/Caption field would make good alt tags.

So the answer to the question is, it depends on what software runs the web sites on which you need alt text for images. If the software has a way to automatically take text from a metadata field and use it as alt text, find out which field or fields it can draw from for that purpose and then enter the alt text into that field in Lightroom. Then, when you use the Export dialog box in Lightroom, be sure to choose a Metadata option that does not strip that field on the way out.

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