Understanding SC 1.4.9: Images of Text (No Exception) (Level AAA)

In Brief

Goal: Users can always adjust how text is presented.
What to do: Do not use pictures of text unless there is no other way to present information.
Why it's important: People cannot alter how text looks in images.

Success Criterion (SC)

Images of text are only used for pure decoration or where a particular presentation of text is essential to the information being conveyed.

Note

Logotypes (text that is part of a logo or brand name) are considered essential.

Intent

The intent of this success criterion is to enable people who require a particular visual presentation of text to be able to adjust the text presentation as required. This includes people who require the text in a particular font size, foreground and background color, font family, line spacing or alignment.

This means implementing the text in a manner that allows its presentation to be changed or providing a mechanism by which users can select an alternate presentation. Using images of text is an example of an implementation that does not allow users to alter the presentation of the text within it.

In some situations, a particular visual presentation of the text is essential to the information being conveyed. This means that information would be lost without that particular visual presentation. In this case implementing the text in a manner that allows its presentation to be changed is not required. This includes text that demonstrates a particular visual aspect of the text, such as a particular font family, or text that conveys an identity, such as text within a company logo.

Text that is decorative does not require implementing the text in a manner that allows its presentation to be changed.

The definition of image of text contains the note: Note: This does not include text that is part of a picture that contains significant other visual content. Examples of such pictures include graphs, screenshots, and diagrams which visually convey important information through more than just text.

Benefits

People with low vision (who may have trouble reading the text with the authored font family, size and/or color).
People with visual tracking problems (who may have trouble reading the text with the authored line spacing and/or alignment).
People with cognitive disabilities that affect reading.

Examples

A quote: A web page contains a quote. The quote itself is presented as italicized text, indented from the left margin. The name of the person to whom the quote is attributed is below the quote with 1.5x the line space and further indented from the left margin. CSS is used to position the text; set the spacing between lines; as well as display the text's font family, size, color and decoration.
Navigation items: A web page contains a menu of navigation links that have both an icon and text to describe their target. CSS is used to display the text's font family, size and foreground and background colors; as well as the spacing between the navigation links.
A logo containing text: A website contains the organization's logo in the top left corner of each web page. The logo contains logotype (text as part, or all, of the logo). The visual presentation of the text is essential to the identity of the logo and is included as a gif image which does not allow the text characteristics to be changed. The image has a text alternative.
Representation of a font family: A web page contains information about a particular font family. Substituting the font family with another font would defeat the purpose of the representation. The representation is included as a jpeg image which does not allow the text characteristics to be changed. The image has a text alternative.
A representation of a letter: A web page contains a representation of an original letter. The depiction of the letter in its original format is essential to information being conveyed about the time period in which it was written. The letter is included as a gif image which does not allow the text characteristics to be changed. The image has a text alternative.
Symbolic text characters: A form allows users to enter blocks of text. The form provides a number of buttons, including functions to style the text and check spelling. Some of the buttons use text characters that do not form a sequence that expresses something in human language. For example "B" to increase font weight, "I" to italicize the text and "ABC" to check the spelling. The symbolic text characters are included as gif images which do not allow the text characteristics to be changed. The buttons have text alternatives.

Related Resources

Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement implied.

Techniques

Each numbered item in this section represents a technique or combination of techniques that the WCAG Working Group deems sufficient for meeting this Success Criterion. A technique may go beyond the minimum requirement of the criterion. There may be other ways of meeting the criterion not covered by these techniques. For information on using other techniques, see Understanding Techniques for WCAG Success Criteria, particularly the "Other Techniques" section.

Sufficient Techniques

Advisory Techniques

Although not required for conformance, the following additional techniques should be considered in order to make content more accessible. Not all techniques can be used or would be effective in all situations.

CSS Techniques

Key Terms

assistive technology

hardware and/or software that acts as a user agent, or along with a mainstream user agent, to provide functionality to meet the requirements of users with disabilities that go beyond those offered by mainstream user agents

Note 1

Functionality provided by assistive technology includes alternative presentations (e.g., as synthesized speech or magnified content), alternative input methods (e.g., voice), additional navigation or orientation mechanisms, and content transformations (e.g., to make tables more accessible).

Note 2

Assistive technologies often communicate data and messages with mainstream user agents by using and monitoring APIs.

Note 3

The distinction between mainstream user agents and assistive technologies is not absolute. Many mainstream user agents provide some features to assist individuals with disabilities. The basic difference is that mainstream user agents target broad and diverse audiences that usually include people with and without disabilities. Assistive technologies target narrowly defined populations of users with specific disabilities. The assistance provided by an assistive technology is more specific and appropriate to the needs of its target users. The mainstream user agent may provide important functionality to assistive technologies like retrieving web content from program objects or parsing markup into identifiable bundles.

Example

Assistive technologies that are important in the context of this document include the following:

screen magnifiers, and other visual reading assistants, which are used by people with visual, perceptual and physical print disabilities to change text font, size, spacing, color, synchronization with speech, etc. in order to improve the visual readability of rendered text and images;
screen readers, which are used by people who are blind to read textual information through synthesized speech or braille;
text-to-speech software, which is used by some people with cognitive, language, and learning disabilities to convert text into synthetic speech;
speech recognition software, which may be used by people who have some physical disabilities;
alternative keyboards, which are used by people with certain physical disabilities to simulate the keyboard (including alternate keyboards that use head pointers, single switches, sip/puff and other special input devices.);
alternative pointing devices, which are used by people with certain physical disabilities to simulate mouse pointing and button activations.

essential

if removed, would fundamentally change the information or functionality of the content, and information and functionality cannot be achieved in another way that would conform

human language

language that is spoken, written or signed (through visual or tactile means) to communicate with humans

Note

Test Rules

The following are Test Rules for certain aspects of this Success Criterion. It is not necessary to use these particular Test Rules to check for conformance with WCAG, but they are defined and approved test methods. For information on using Test Rules, see Understanding Test Rules for WCAG Success Criteria.

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