What is alt-text?
- Alternative text or “alt-text” is the text alternative programmatically added to digital non-text content.
- Alt-text helps those with disabilities that impair their use or understanding of digital objects. It’s not to be confused with extended description, which is a more detailed textual description that elaborates on the information provided by the alt-text.
- Both alt-text and extended description are read aloud as people navigate the web and digital products, such as ebooks.
Why is writing good alt-text important?
- Globally, at least 2.2 billion people have a near or distance vision impairment, and 39 million people are believed to be blind. Those with cognitive impairments such as epilepsy and light sensitivity also rely on accessible features to aid their digital experiences.
- Many in the publishing industry believe that the best person to write alt-text is the book’s author. They are the best equipped to understand why non-text digital objects are used within their ebook.
- Most digital objects have missing, incomplete or incorrect alt-text, which creates barriers for readers and increases the risk of publishers facing legal challenges.
- Excluding people with disabilities is considered discriminatory by the Americans with Disabilities Act, the UK Equality Act of 2010 and European Accessibility Act (EAA).
Writing good alt-text is difficult:
- Web AIM, one of the leading websites on the topic, describes assigning alt-text as ‘one of the most difficult tasks to implement.’
- Scribely employ teams of writers to help digital writers make images and videos accessible to assistive technologies.
- Although AI is improving, it often results in inaccuracies and improper search tagging.
Important tips for writing effective alt-text:
- Brevity – Alt-text must be brief, ideally no longer than 125 characters.
- Meaning – Think about the purpose of the image. The same image might be described in a different way depending on its application.
- Objectivity – Avoid positive or negative language that will sway the user’s opinion of the image.
- Specificity – In situations where there are multiple images of the same subject, accounting for the distinctive details of each image is crucial.
- Context – Pay attention to the image caption and the surrounding text. When the caption provides the specific context of an image, focus the alt-text on the visual information left out by the caption.
- Decorative images – Do not need alt-text. However, they must be tagged accordingly.
Helpful resources:
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