| GreenIT | V2 | V3 | V4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Life cycle | Tiers | Responsible |
|---|---|---|
| 3. Implementation | User/Device | User |
| Priority | Implementation difficulty | Ecological impact |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | 3 | 5 |
| Saved resources |
|---|
| Network |
Text uses much less bandwidth than multimedia formats such as audio or video, even when it is formatted in HTML/CSS. Providing users with alternative textual content allows them to read instead of listening or watching, therefore saving much data. If the textual alternative is itself large, you might want to load it only after a user action.
This practice is also beneficial for accessibility: the hearing impaired can read content and therefore have access to it, as can the visually impaired, if the text includes video descriptions of elements that are only available visually.
This practice is also beneficial for SEO (Search Engine Optimization), as search engines can more easily analyze text than audio and video formats.
See also "Avoid automatic playback of videos and sounds" on the same topic.
A 30-minute video typically takes up 500MB, a podcast of the same duration takes up 30MB, and an equivalent text is less than 1MB.
| The number of ... | is equal to or less than |
|---|---|
| multimedia files without textual alternatives | 10% |