A thousand words: Writing effective image descriptions
Image: Wesson Wang on Unsplash
Images are a great way to make writing engaging, but are they making your writing less accessible? By providing a simple description of each image using the alt-text field in webpages, Word documents and other digital formats, you can make your content more accessible to users of screen reading software, including people who are blind or have low vision.
A recent push to improve image descriptions has highlighted how missing or poorly executed alt-text can render good writing inaccessible. Here are some tips to help your writing remain accessible to everyone.
Does your project need image descriptions?
Yes. If it contains images and is going to be consumed digitally, it can be run through screen reader software. If images are aiding the overall communicative purpose of the article, it should include a short description of the image.
Deciding which images need description
Purely decorative images don’t need description, nor do those already described in the caption, like you might see in a newspaper article. An image containing words will need description, as this won’t be picked up by the screen reader. This includes memes, screenshots, posters or tables.
Adding alt-text to social media posts
Many platforms have updated their sites to easily allow alt-text and this guide runs through all the appropriate steps. Depending on the platform, you may still want to include the description in the body of the post, such as if you are writing a post which will use a thumbnail image to link to an article. The best way to do this is to open brackets, write ‘Image description’ followed by a colon and then include your description before closing brackets.
Don’t repeat what is in the text already
Make sure each description is unique and specific to that image. There shouldn’t be any crossover between what occurs in the body of the text and in the alt-text description. From an editorial perspective, if you are writing the alt-text and worried that you are repeating yourself, consider the relevance of the image in the first place.
Keep it short
One sentence (2 at most) should be enough. Different platforms allow up to 1000 characters for alt-text descriptions, but most shouldn’t run over 100.
Be aware of the sensitives of your subject and readers
It’s easy to be too generic with alt-text, especially as the writer is approaching the task as someone who can see the image in its entirety. Similarly, certain software companies have developed their own AI-driven alt-text generators, which have produced some hilariously bad results. Exercise caution when describing a person’s ethnicity, skin colour, their body shape or their gender, as while this might make the image description more informative it could also offend the person you’re describing (or your readers).
Deciding what details to include
A generic image taken from a stock photography site such as Unsplash will not require the same descriptive detail as one with specific relevance to your content. Context is critical. For example, an alt-text tag along the lines of ‘Two men in suits celebrating with glasses of champagne’ would be fine for describing a generic photo. But what about for an article about a company’s success where the accompanying photo is of the CEO and CFO at a James Bond themed end-of-year party, sponsored by Moët? In this context, the details of who, what and where take on much greater importance.
Adding well-considered descriptions will improve the accessibility, relevance and SEO rating of your piece, all with just a few extra minutes of attention.
