Alternative Text for Images

What is it?

Alternative Text or Alt text is a brief piece of text that describes an image on a webpage.

The Alt text does not display for site visitors like a caption, but instead is a part of the code on your website.

What Does it Do?

Alt text is displayed when an image cannot be displayed on a webpage for the following reasons:

• When someone is using screen reader software. This type of software is used by people with visual and cognitive disabilities, and it reads the webpage out loud.  Screen readers will read the text on a page and will read the Alt Text that has been entered. If Alt Text has not been added, the screen reader cannot read this to the user.
• When an image is broken or missing
• When the user has images turned off in their web browser

Why is Adding Alt Text Important?

• Makes the website more accessible for everyone
• Allows technology to interpret the images on web pages
• It is good for SEO or search engine optimization because search engines don’t see images but can read the alt text