Alt Text

To provide a similar experience for everyone who views your document it is important to know how to make media items (audio, video, images, etc) accessible.

Alternative Text for Images

One of the easiest ways to accomplish this is by using alternative text (alt-text). Alt-text is used to describe the content and function of the images being used. Visually impaired users using screen readers Links to an external site.will be read the alt-text so that they can understand an image. Without this alt-text, these users will be unable to get the same information as users without visual impairments. Alternative text is metadata added to an image that does not appear visually and may differ from the types of language that appears in figure captions.

To be useful, alt text needs to be accurate, equivalent to the content of the image, succinct, and context-sensitive. Alt text should also not refer to the fact that it is describing an image (e.g., do not use alt text which states “image of ….”). By using alt-text it is already communicated to users that you are referring to an image, so you do not need to specify this again.

For a more comprehensive overview of using alt-text and to view other examples please visit webaim Links to an external site..