Text only should be a last resort

Requirement: If a practical accessible alternative to text-only page exists, that alternative should be used.

Text-only pages are very accessible. When you are trying to put content into something that is accessible, though, text-only versions should be a last resort.

Text only versions often do not fully convey content and its context. From a maintenance view, creating a text-only page for every Web page you have is doing twice the work. Invariably, the text version is going to be out of sync with your regular content. This then creates an accuracy problem.

In the early 1990s, when graphical browsers first appeared on the Web and most users had relatively slow Internet connections, many developers created text-only versions of a site to accommodate these users. However, most graphical browsers give users the option of turning off images and text-based browsers are still around.

Good development practices avoid the need to put content in multiple forms. The markup language (mostly HTML) used in Web development is very flexible. Good Web development results in one set of content (Web pages) that can be shared among a wide range of users and systems.