The Write Climate

Share this post
A Brief Introduction to Using Alt Text
thewriteclimate.substack.com

A Brief Introduction to Using Alt Text

A few easy dos and don’ts for increasing image accessibility

Rachel Yoho
Jul 13
1
2
Share this post
A Brief Introduction to Using Alt Text
thewriteclimate.substack.com

Twitter recently increased the prominence of the alt text option for images and GIFs.  With the new roll-out of the “ALT badge” and better image accessibility features, many questions about alt text and how to use it remain.

Alt text is the shortened version of “alternative text” and focuses on the text that is read aloud by a screen reader when encountered on the webpage, document, or site.  Other terms for this are “alt tag,” “alt attribute,” or “image description.”

Thanks for reading The Write Climate! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

graphics of multiple document and site types - computer, document, phone

Overall, the goal of Alt Text is to “convey the ‘why’ of the image” with respect to the context in which it is presented.  Often, images present essential information.  These might be infographics, maps, graphs/charts, or other context-dependent essential information.  The goal is to have well-written, descriptive alt text in order to reduce ambiguity.

For Twitter, “ALT” is the abbreviation for alternative text, which is the technical name for image description.

social media icons

Dos

  • Keep the description short.  This might be a few words or infrequently a sentence or two.

  • Avoid unnecessary words like “image of” or “photo of” in the description

  • Focus on the content of the image (for example, the essential information needed from the graph, not simply that it is a graph)

  • Create alt text for videos when needed

  • Consider using more detailed captions to discuss figures, rather than lengthy alt text

Don’ts

  • Write alt text for decorative, meaningless images (instead, mark these images as decorative)

  • Describe only the superficial surface features

  • Repeat the same alt text everywhere for the same image

  • Use the filename

  • Duplicate descriptions if it is already included in the main text

cartoon person with hands folded sitting behind laptop with social media icons on cover, coffee and papers on table

Twitter provides additional guidance on setting image descriptions, including options for web, Android, and Apple, as well as using VoiceOver, JAWS, and NVDA.  JAWS, NVDA, and Microsoft Narrator are screen readers that will read aloud the added alt text descriptions.  Microsoft also has guidance on introducing alt text, as well as examples, in their software products.  Interestingly, Microsoft 365 has the ability to generate alt text automatically.  Naturally, it seems like this would need to be checked for accuracy.

Whether it is social media or other uses, opportunities to improve accessibility through alt text abound.  The keys are following best practices and learning how each platform, program, or site adds alt text to images, figures, graphics, videos, and more.

Thanks for reading The Write Climate! Please subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

2
Share this post
A Brief Introduction to Using Alt Text
thewriteclimate.substack.com
2 Comments

Create your profile

0 subscriptions will be displayed on your profile (edit)

Skip for now

Only paid subscribers can comment on this post

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in

Check your email

For your security, we need to re-authenticate you.

Click the link we sent to , or click here to sign in.

Michelle Young
Jul 13Liked by Rachel Yoho

I really love the inclusivity that ALT text brings to Twitter. I would love to see journals adopt this.

Expand full comment
ReplyCollapse
1 reply by Rachel Yoho
1 more comments…
TopNewCommunity

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2022 Rachel Yoho
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Publish on Substack Get the app
Substack is the home for great writing