Microsoft Edge now automatically generates image labels for screen readers
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge More than half of the images on the web are missing alt text, according to Microsoft. Image labels (alternative text) are key for many who are blind or low vision, as they provide screen readers with text to read aloud. Microsoft is now attempting to fill the gap with auto-generated alt text for images on the web.
Existing screen readers currently read out unlabeled graphic" if there's no description of an image at all which isn't very helpful. Microsoft Edge has now been updated to improve the screen reader experience for all of the images on the web without alt text.
When a screen reader finds an image without a label, that image can be automatically processed by machine learning (ML) algorithms to describe the image in words and...