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I choose to review our local news website called, “KYUK.org.” It’s practical and useful and easy to navigate.
When I selected today’s date to view image information it showed there were 20 images. Because this is a local news source, I’m sure the number can change, based on their advertised written stories. Some images didn’t reflect any information on the size and width of the images. I choose two property values with one stated the width was 16 and height had same value at 16. The other image width was 34 with the height at 184 in size dimensions. Using the web developer tool in Firefox I found that the 20 images cumulative size was 336kb total.
It seems to me that the purpose of the images on this page is to associate visually the image to the story. The visual impact enhances the boring text words we read so often. There are several stories without images too, as the information is tragic, thus leaving the reader to choose if they want to read the story. I feel the images help pull you into the desire to read further about the subject covered.
Also, if the images are tagged and hidden, then yes they should be accessible via text. In my case, choosing the KYUK.org site allowed for browsing even after the images were not displayed. They had tagged text that allowed me to know what was in its place.