Glossary
Alt text
What does alt text mean?
- Reading the question
- Writing it in plain words
The part worth reading
What it does not tell you.
Instagram generates alt text automatically and it is usually poor, describing objects rather than meaning: "may be an image of text" tells a blind reader nothing about a post whose entire point is the text. Writing it yourself takes a sentence and is the single cheapest accessibility improvement available on the platform. It is a description of what matters in the image, not a place for hashtags.
Worked example
'A bowl of dal with rice and a lemon wedge on a steel plate' tells someone using a screen reader what the photo shows.
The usual mistake
Leaving the automatic description. It is often vague, and writing your own takes ten seconds.
Read next
Words that go with it.
Articles that use this word
See it in use.
Now the harder question. What do yours say?
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