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Overview
This article helps students, faculty, and staff understand the meaning, purpose, and best practices of alternative text to help meet digital accessibility standards in their content. It provides tips, examples, and more resources. Always refer to the ADA digital accessibility standards for the most up-to-date compliance requirements.
What is Alternative Text (Alt Text)?
Alt text (alternative text) is short, descriptive text that communicates the meaning or function of an image to users who cannot see it. It is read aloud by screen readers and appears when images fail to load. Alt text also benefits users with slow internet connections and supports search engine optimization and other technical uses.
Best Practices for Alt Text
Source: Section508.gov – Authoring Meaningful Alternative Text
- Focus on what is meaningful in context. Ask yourself, "If I could not see this picture, what would be important for me to know about it?"
- Keep it concise and relevant.
- Avoid repeating information already provided in nearby text.
- Use the same language as the surrounding content.
- Don't use phrases like “image of” or “picture of"; screen readers already announce it’s an image.
- Mark purely decorative images appropriately.
- Any AI-generated alt text must be edited for accuracy.
- View examples of proper alt text
Extended Description (or Long Description) Alt Text
Long descriptions are used when an image contains more information than can fit in concise alt text, such as data‑rich charts, diagrams, complex infographics, maps, or illustrations conveying essential details. Because long descriptions are too detailed to fit inside the alt text field, we recommend placing them within the document itself in the surrounding text. Be sure to add standard alt text to the image as well.
Example of Long Description
Imagine a bar chart titled University Enrollment by Program, 2025.
Standard Alt Text: Bar chart showing 2025 university enrollment by program.
Health Sciences leads enrollment, while Arts & Humanities is the smallest.
Long Description (placed in the document text above or below the image): This chart displays enrollment numbers across five academic programs in 2025, as follows: Business: 1,200 students, Engineering: 950 students,
Health Sciences: 1,450 students,
Education: 700 students, Arts & Humanities: 600 students.
Still Need Help?
Creative Production offers help with document formatting, design, and redesign if needed. Please note, Creative Production cannot ensure accessibility for content created by other users. They may need to re-create a document to ensure accessibility, if you choose to use their services. Costs apply. Submit a ticket to request Creative Production services
IT Solutions primarily supports digital accessibility for academic and course-related materials including document accessibility, captioning and transcription services. Support for other content may be available if time allows, with costs applying to non-course materials. Submit a ticket to request IT Solutions services