Welcome to the Power Users community on Codidact!
Power Users is a Q&A site for questions about the usage of computer software and hardware. We are still a small site and would like to grow, so please consider joining our community. We are looking forward to your questions and answers; they are the building blocks of a repository of knowledge we are building together.
Post History
#1: Initial revision
How to write good alt text
<h3 id="what-is-alt-text-and-why-should-i-care-about-it-">What is alt text and why should I care about it?</h3>
<p>Alt text, or an image description, is what shows up in place of an image when that image fails to load. It's also what a screen reader will read out when someone is using a screen reader to browse the site, as well as what search engines and feeds display. With that in mind, it's an important part of <a href="https://webaim.org/">web accessibility</a> to include good alt text.</p>
<h3 id="how-do-i-write-good-alt-text-">How do I write good alt text?</h3>
<p>Everything depends on the context of the image, but there are a few basic guidelines to keep in mind.</p>
<ul>
<li><p><strong>The alt text should serve the exact same purpose as the image</strong></p>
<p>When you're using an image, it's almost always to serve a purpose. Whether that's for demonstration, or to show an example, you're including an image for a reason.
The alt text should serve the exact same purpose in your post as the image. Anything that's important and <em>relevant to your post</em> that's contained in your image should also be contained in the alt text.</p>
</li>
<li><p><strong>Don't include unnecessary or redundant details</strong></p>
<p>If you've already stated something in the text of your post, there's usually no need to repeat it in the alt text.
Don't get bogged down trying to include <em>every bit of detail</em> in the image. Only include whatever details from the image are actually relevant to your post - focus on the important parts.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>As a general rule, if it would be theoretically possible for you to entirely replace your image with the alt text, without your post losing usefulness or clarity, you're good to go. </p>