Day 9: Revisit Effective Alternative Text

Let’s circle back to revisit alt text. (Oops, we almost used some jargon there!) Add alternative text to a screen shot in your document to pass the Accessibility Checker.

When adding alt text:

• Determine whether the image is decorative or meaningful.
• Do not use auto-generated descriptions because they do not provide sufficiently informative descriptions for users of screen readers.
• Instead, write your own descriptive but concise alt text.
• Explain key visual elements.
• Craft your alt text in a word processor to catch typos and grammatical errors.

Follow these steps to learn how to add alt text in your document:

1. Open Microsoft Word.
2. Select the object to which you want to add alt text.
3. Right click the object.
4. Select “Edit Alt Text.”
5. The “Alt Text” pane will appear on the right side of the window.
6. Use the content box to type your alternative text.
7. Select the check box, “Mark as Decorative,” if the image is decorative. An example of a decorative image is a border around a chart.

Let us know what you learned today by posting on social media with #ABD21DayChallenge and #AccessibleByDesign.