How Can I Make CSS Background Images Accessible and Semantically Meaningful?

ALT Tags for CSS Background Images: An Alternative Approach

Traditionally, alt tags are used to provide alternative text descriptions for images on web pages. However, CSS background images do not allow direct use of alt tags. This raises the question of how to implement accessibility and semantic meaning for such images.

In the absence of a dedicated CSS property for alt tags, the best practice is to use the title attribute on the containing div. This approach has several advantages:

Accessibility:

• The title attribute is recognized by screen readers and other assistive technologies.
• By providing a title, users can still access information about the background image even if their browser cannot render it.

Semantic Meaning:

• The title attribute allows developers to provide contextual information about the background image, making it more meaningful for search engine crawlers and screen readers.

Example:

Consider the following HTML and CSS:

<div class="hotwire-fitness" title="Fitness Centre"></div>

.hotwire-fitness {
    background: url(/prostyle/images/new_amenities.png) -71px 0;
}

In this example, the div element has a title attribute of "Fitness Centre", which describes the background image. This information will be available to users with disabilities or who have their images disabled.

Compliance with Standards:

According to the W3C, the title attribute can serve a similar purpose to the alt attribute in terms of providing alternative information for non-visible content. It is therefore considered an acceptable approach for background images.

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