Using images, tables & other visual material in your work

Alt text is a hidden text description of a figure. This enables screen reader software to provide useful information about the figure to readers who have difficulty using visual materials.

Adding alt text

Options to add alt text are common in most software. In Microsoft Office software such as Word, PowerPoint and Excel, options to add alt text can be found under the Check Accessibility menu under the Review tab.

If you right-click on a figure, you will also often see options to view, add and edit alt text in the menu that comes up.

What should alt text include?

There all sorts of figures you might include in your work, so the nature of what should go in the alt text will change from figure to figure. It is also the case that some information is expressed visually as it can’t readily be expressed in text, so it may not always be possible to directly replicate all the information in the figure in the alt text.

However, there are some good principles to follow: 

• Make sure your reader understands what the figure is and how it relates to your work
• Focus on the aspects of the figure that are crucial to your work: that is the information that your reader most needs to know
• Think about how important the figure is to your work when deciding how long and detailed to make the alt text. You will waste your reader’s time if you add lots of detail to the alt text for a relatively unimportant figure, or add information that isn’t necessary for them understand the figure and its relevance

It is worth considering how the design and layout of your work will affect your readers’ ability to read it. By setting out your work in an appropriate way, you can make sure your readers can access and read it as easily as possible.

For example, this might mean using text rather than images to provide key information your readers will need to quickly and easily access such as titles, headings or contact details. Or it could mean only using tables to display data and not to lay out your work.

There are several courses about improving the accessibility of your work in LinkedIn Learning if you wish to explore these issues in more depth.

There are two common cases when you don’t need to include alt text: 

• Hardcopy or print work.  Alt text only works on electronic or online documents: if your work will only be available to your reader as a print or hardcopy document- for example, a poster- there is no point in adding alt text. 
• Decorative figures. If a figure is purely decorative, providing more information about it won’t benefit your reader. 
  Many common software packages like Word or PowerPoint will have an option to mark a figure as ‘decorative’ when choosing alt text. This enables a screen reader to skip figures which do not convey information.