There was a report a few weeks ago which said that most websites are still failing disabled web users by not conforming to the most basic accessibility standards.

I try, as much as I can, to follow some of the basic rules. I don't always manage it but it's usually there in the back of my mind when I'm making a site. But as an affiliate, not all of the code on my site has come from me - I have to rely on the code provided to me by the affiliate network.

I thought it would be useful to conduct a quick survey of the code provided by affiliate networks for image banner links to see which followed probably the single most basic, and easy to implement, accessibility recommendation - the alt attribute on an image.

Often you will get the choice of a Javascript or HTML link - for this survey I will look at the HTML code produced for banners, since Javascript has issues of its own which mean its often not suitable at all for disabled users.

Affiliate Future
No Alt Attribute

Affiliate Window
No Alt Attribute

TradeDoubler
No Alt Attribute

Buy.At
No Alt Attribute

Paid On Results
Alt Attribute Provided!!!

Commission Junction
No Alt Attribute

Webgains
Alt Attribute Provided!!!

LinkShare
Alt Attribute Provided!!!

So in the survey, it's well done to Linkshare, Webgains and Paid On Results. And a disappointing result from the other networks.

Seems to me that it would be very easy to create functionality to automatically add in the alt attribute to banner codes ("advertising banner for merchant name") when they generate the link code if the networks were interested in providing accessible code to their affiliates.

Labels: affiliate marketing, affiliate network, web accessibility