Text as Images?

When providing text to students or readers, enter text into an editor application, letter-by-letter, word-by word so that the text is native to the document or page.  We can call this "real text."  Avoid providing text in an image file or picture, such as this: 

The above image shows clearly the word "text," but rather than being in-line or "real text," it is a .png image file.

The above image may be a tempting solution when you want particularly attractive or compelling text design.  And for items such as logos, it is not a problem; alt-text can convey the meaning just fine.  Buttons that activate hyperlinks can also work, provided they have alt-text that matches the button's text. 

However, any lengthy text, even with an Alt-Text description, it is additional information for screen readers to read aloud.  Further, if you need to provide a lengthy alt-text version, it is dubious as to why it needs to be an image in the first place.  If the text is to serve as a title or heading, that is not indicated by the screen reader.  If a reader is using other assistive technologies that re-scale or change the font or typeface, text in image files may not respond.  Zooming tools may cause images to pixelate, rather than simply enlarge. 

As in so many other things accessible text is better for all readers.  For example, real text can be found by software search tools (typically accessible via CRTL-F or Command-F), whereas image text is not.

It is true that, in this resource, we have used images to show examples of text.  But note that they are identified with alt-text, and the text is not reliant on them to carry the message.  Moreover, for faculty with typical web access practices who can see the image, they serve examples of what not to do, as far as accessibility!