Accessibility Focus: Alt Text 

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In our last post, we covered how to properly create accessible tables. Today, we’re talking about a more common accessibility issue that can be annoying or at least very specific to deal with – alt text.  

What is alt text?  

Alt text provides a description of an image for screen readers so users who can’t see the image can understand what the image is and how it’s used in your content. If you leave the alt text field blank (or if it’s filled with a basic file name like image.jpg or figure1.png), the user will miss out on understanding the image and how it relates to your content because the screen reader will just relate what is (or isn’t) in the alt text field. 

What needs alt text?  

It’s easy to say, “oh, absolutely everything needs alt text” – and that’s not too far from the truth. Most images will need alt text, but there’s limited scenarios where you can or should mark an image as “decorative” which tells the screen reader to ignore the image.  

So what images should be marked as decorative? If an image does not provide any information or context and is just present for aesthetics, then you’re good to mark it as decorative!  

If you have an image that is fully described by the surrounding text, you don’t need to duplicate your work. In that case, you can include alt text that points to where the actual description is (such as “Diagram of processes as described below/above”).  

What needs to be included in alt text?  

Good alt text includes enough detail so someone using a screen reader can fully understand the image’s purpose and meaning. Additionally, if the image includes text, that text must be exactly replicated in the alt text.  

Context is important when creating alt text. The exact same image could have different alt text on different pages to fully describe how it’s used in each context. When you’re writing alt text, think about the context and purpose for the image and use that to shape your alt text. 

Alt text is still hard. Is there anything that can help me?  

Yes! If you’re working in Canvas, you can use the Accessibility Checker to help generate alt text. Unfortunately, this feature is not available when you’re creating or editing in the RCE in pages, quizzes, assignments, etc. But if you leave the alt text for the image blank in the RCE, the Accessibility Checker will flag it and let you generate the alt text in that tool. Now, having Canvas/its AI generate the alt text isn’t perfect – but it’s a good starting point that you can then edit and make sure it accurately describes the image and its context. If you run into any problems when using the Accessibility Checker, contact Canvas support through the help menu in Canvas.  
 
If you have questions about accessibility (about alt text or accessibility in general), please don’t hesitate to reach out to us! Drop us a comment below or email us at ctl@cedarville.edu, and we’d love to chat.  

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