[Doc]: Add alt text to figures in documentation  #24309

Documentation Link

No response

Problem

None of our images have alt-text and that's becoming a standard now and our communication's guidelines say we should add alt-text when the platform allows.

Suggested improvement

The steps involved in having a consistent way to add alt text to our docs are

code

• Add wai-aria property to the artist accessibility annotations. #21328
• [Bug]: plot directive not handling indentation of long option strings #29649
• enable support of alt text in sphinx gallery scraper
  • https://github.com/sphinx-gallery/sphinx-gallery/blob/e2ecb35d9049d0df0a1db4f6d15be817745cd565/sphinx_gallery/scrapers.py#L437-L448
• add passing through alt-text to any file types that support it
  • svg is included in Add wai-aria property to the artist accessibility annotations. #21328
  • pdf [Doc]: Add alt text to figures in documentation  #24309 (comment)

docs

• replace alt text guidelines in communication guidelines with a standalone documentation page on alt-text for visualization best practices, update links in communications and pull requests guidelines to post to it.
• write tutorial on making accessible viz
• document using alt_aria as part of and alt text and update the PR template w/ a nudge to use alt text
• add alt text to gallery files: I do it here in order of visibility, but traffic is probably a better way to prioritize)
  • plot gallery - it feeds the home page gallery so is probably highest profile
  • tutorials - doesn't always have code for the images
  • gallery
  • narrative text
  • older whats news and anything missing from the above

Adding alt text is piles of work and probably would benefit from strategy and partnerships w/ classes/sprints or hiring someone depending on timeline.