Seeking industry standards for PDF map alt text for screen reader accessibility

A user asks the accessibility community whether there is an industry standard for writing alt text descriptions for PDF maps intended for screen readers. The team has found general resources for complex image alt text but nothing specific to maps. They seek guidance on best practices for what to describe and how detailed the descriptions should be, including whether wayfinding instructions should be included.

https://community.esri.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/3043103h ago1 min readen

technology design accessibility documentation standards

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Key quotes

We've been working on standardizing the Alt text across all our PDF Maps and we're curious if anyone knows if there's an industry standard out there for best practices for what to describe for a map?

We've found a few resources for alt text recommendations for complex images and we're aware of best practices for image alt text but so far nothing for describing appearance of maps specifically.

Is there a best practice for how detailed or lengthy our alt text descriptions should be? For example, should we be describing wayfinding instructions for access

From the article

Hi There, Our team has been working on standardizing the Alt text across all our PDF Maps and we're curious if anyone knows if there's an industry standard out there for best practices for what to describe for a map? We've found a few resources for alt t

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