How to Write More Effective Alt Text

Adding alt text can be fairly simple to do, but how do you write useful alt text? Watch this short video for 6 tips to keep in mind when writing alt text.

Transcript:
How To Write More Effective Alt Text

What do we mean by alt text?
All non-text elements like images and graphs should have an equivalent text alternative. 

Adding alternative text...
Easy to do. 
Difficult to do well. 

Alt text serves three purposes...
1 Readable by screen readers
2 Readable by search engines
3 Provide context for images that fail to load

6 Tips to Help
You Write More
Useable Alt Text

1 Be clear and concise. Put the most important information first.
2 If there is more than one sentence, use correct punctuation and spacing.
3 Be sure to use vocabulary appropriate to the level of your reader. Don't introduce new vocab in alt text!
4 There is no need to add "picture of" or "image of" for most images. It just adds extra words for the screen reader!
5 Don't include unnecessary details (like what color socks the person is wearing) or information that is already in the text.
6 What you would write instead if an image wasn't there?
HINT: If you can't think of anything, the image is decorative (use "" in place of alt text).

All alt text is not created equal. 
Alt text is contextual. 
Consider USABILITY as well as accessibility!  

Learn more about digital accessibility!
CTDInstitute.org