Alt Text and the negatives
There is no disputing that Alt Text is a great reference tool.
In summary, it is generally used to describe images. This is extremely useful for those who are visually impaired, often relying on a screen-reader software to read-aloud the contents of a page, post, or document. The screen-reader will find the Alt Text and use it to describe the image.
The idea has been around for a long time. It was proposed in 1993 as part of the HTML web standards (the language to produce a web page). Initially it was a solution to how text only browsers would show an image. Over the years it has become an excellent enhancement to the inclusive web experience. There have been several legal cases over the years involving the lack of alt attributes on images; citing a violation of the country's Disability Discrimination laws as it excludes certain groups of viewers.
Out in the wild
Commercial organisations appear to be poor at using Alt Text reliably. A brief analysis in 2024 suggested only 25% of organisations used it effectively.
The Fediverse
It's great to see that the Fediverse is embracing it. A number of polls suggest around 75% of people actively add Alt Text to their own posts.
There are even bots which will automatically describe your images if you are too lazy to do so!
I couldn't source any data on how widely Alt Text is used in commercial social media, such as Instagram, but 75% is an impressive number on the fediverse. However, there is always room for improvement.
The down sides
SEO
Back in the day, when it was all about how to stuff your content into the Google sausage machine to get hits, the Alt Text ability was used in SEO. How effective that was is up for debate, but it was not, and never should be, the reason for providing alternative text for an image.
AI
By far the greatest issue with Alt Text now is the dreaded AI. It's everywhere, sucking up content, learning, plagiarising, and vomiting out text which too many accept as fact without further verification.
Alt Text attributes on an image are a surreptitious way for you to unwittingly continue to train AI services.
There's no immediate answer on how to prevent this -- we are in an era where AI is vying for top spot. It inhales data from across the internet; rarely cites it sources when referencing it; and all the while consuming enough power to run entire countries.
Feel free to comment or reply on the fediverse.