Accessibility Best Practices
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Alternative Text (Alt Text)
Alt text is a brief description of an image that is used to provide context for people who cannot see the image. It is primarily used for accessibility, helping screen readers describe images to users with visual limitations.
Race, gender, ethnicity, and physical features in alt text:
Things can get subjective and inaccurate quickly if you’re trying to describe a person’s gender, ethnicity, race, clothing, hair, etc. Leave these descriptions out of your alt text for individual people unless it is truly communicating important information that cannot be accessed any other way for those who cannot see the photo.
This article has some great examples for when it is important to include these items in alt text: Alternative text: race, gender, and physical descriptions
To write good alt text:
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Be concise.
Keep it short, usually 1-2 sentences. Don’t overthink it.
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Convey the content and information presented by the image.
Include only information that is not already captured in other on-screen text.
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Avoid phrases like “image of” or “picture of”
Screen readers already identify the item as an image. DO, however, include if it is a logo, illustration, painting, headshot, or cartoon.
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Do not use abbreviations and excessive punctuation.
Don’t use punctuation such as ***, which screen readers will annoyingly read as “asterisk, asterisk, asterisk.”
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Do not provide alt text if an image is purely decorative. Use “” in the alt text field.
In the instance where an image adds no useful additional information to the screen’s content, you can skip writing alt text and enter “” in the alt text field to indicate to a screen reader that it can be completely skipped.
Alt Text example
Alt Text: Group of college students walk along a tree-lined pathway.