Alt text: A winding dirt path curves through colorful fall foliage of red and gold.
You might have previously seen an image like the one above, accompanied by a short text description. So, what is alt text and why should we use it?
Alt text is short for “alternative text”, which is text that accompanies an image to aid in its description. Alt text descriptors are built into web pages to aid those who are blind, have low vision, or cognitive disabilities, interpret an accompanying image through use of an e-reader. With alt text, people using e-readers can have a greater understanding and context of what they are reading. But alt text isn’t just used for accessibility to those with disabilities. Alt text can also be understood by search engines and can increase findability, and alt text can also be used as a descriptor in the place of an image that fails to load.
Alt text descriptors are embedded within an image’s HTML code, but you don’t need to understand coding to make your content accessible. Many social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook, WordPress, X, and Reddit, have built in ways to easily insert alt text into posts with images.
Here are some quick tips to get you started on implementing alt text
– Avoid starting your alt text descriptor with, “This is an image of…”, but instead just transition into describing the image.
– Use correct grammar, such as capitalization and punctuation.
– Keep it short! 1-2 sentences are sufficient.
– Write out any text that is contained within an image.
Check out this how-to from San Jose State University on how to start including alt text in your content and you can help champion digital accessibility!
Accessibility Guidelines for Creating Text Documents | Center for Faculty Development (sjsu.edu)
