November: Alternative Text

What is Alt Text?

When you include an image in a document or a website, it is important to provide a written description of the image.  This description is called alternative text or alt text for short.  For those with limited or no sight, they will not be able to understand or make use of the image's qualities, and adding alt text provides this information to them. Alt text is also useful for people with limited internet connectivity, and can sometimes be displayed when images won’t load.

Below are examples of alt text with UMD’s mascot, Champ, in different contexts. 

Champ, the mascot of the University of Minnesota Duluth, cheers at a hockey game.

  • Generic alt text: A mascot at a sporting event engaging with the crowd

  • Specific alt text: Champ, the mascot of the University of Minnesota Duluth, cheers at a hockey game.

How to create alt text

Tips for writing alt text

  • You don’t need to write “Image of” or “Picture of” in your alt-text. Doing so will create redundancy and repetition with screen reading software. 
  • Make your alternative text short, succinct, but descriptive. Keep it below 160 characters!
  • Context matters! Alt text for the same image could be written in different ways, depending on where the image is. Some scenarios may require more detail, while others will need very generic alternative text.  
  • If the image contains text, include all the text in the image.

Advanced tips on writing alt text

Where can I learn more about Alternative Text and digital accessibility?

 

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