Outlook menu with the option Add alternate text selected

Day 42: Alt text best practices

On Day 41 we learned the basics of writing alt text, but writing good alt text takes some practice.  These best practices can help.

Best Practices for writing alt text:

  • Write in sentence case.
  • Include just the description, not introductory text like "An image of" or "Image of" as screen readers will say something like, "Image: Image of a red train going through a dark tunnel."
  • Indicating the image is a graph, photo, or screenshot is okay. It will often sound like Image: Graph showing the number increase in sales" or "Image: Photograph of Mount Hood at sunset"
  • Include any text in the image (for example legacy images that haven't been updated)
  • If the image is complex or needs more of a description, add a detailed caption to the image.

#100DaysOfA11y

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