Images of Text - Success Criterion 1.4.5 (Level AA)

Question

Are you avoiding the use of images of text?

Why is this important?

If what appears to be text on a web page or application is actually an image (of text), some assistive technology tools will not be able to access and read the text in the image. People with disabilities that rely on these tools will not have access to that content.

People with visual and cognitive disabilities often rely on the ability to customize font, size, color and background. Since Images of text cannot be customized, users may not be able to read or understand the content.

Whom does it benefit?

Example 1

As a person who deals with light sensitivity,
I want to be able to customize text and background properties
so that I can read white text on a dark background.

Example 2

As a person with a learning disability who uses text-to-speech technologies that only read visible text on a page,
I want everything to be actual text, not images of text
so that I can read everything with my text-to-speech tools.

What should you do?

Do not use images of text.
Remove existing images of text and replace with text.

Exceptions allowing use of images of text include reproductions of official and historical documents, corporate logos, and artworks containing text. Alternative text should be provided. A full-text transcript is also required for historical documents.

How do you do it?

Replace existing images of text with text.
When required to maintain the author’s original format of a poem, or showing quotes, use CSS and responsive design techniques to emulate the original format, rather than using an image of text.