Alternative text serves as a bridge between visual and non-visual experiences of digital content. When someone using a screen reader encounters an image without alt text, they hear only "image" or a meaningless filename, creating an information gap that can range from mildly frustrating to completely excluding them from understanding course materials, research findings, or important announcements. Alt text transforms images into words, conveying not just what an image shows, but why it matters in context, whether that's a complex data visualization in a research presentation, a diagram explaining a scientific concept, or a photograph capturing a campus event.
Beyond accessibility compliance, thoughtful alt text benefits everyone in our academic community. Students accessing course materials on mobile devices with limited bandwidth appreciate text descriptions when images load slowly. Faculty repurposing content across platforms find that well-written alt text makes materials more versatile and searchable. Researchers sharing visual data ensure their work reaches the widest possible audience. By treating alt text as an essential component of digital communication rather than an afterthought, we create more robust, inclusive, and effective educational experiences that reflect our institution's values and enhance learning for all.
Ready to make your images accessible? Our Quick Fix Guide: Creating Alt Text for Images distills essential alt text principles into a single, practical reference page. Whether you're working in Canvas, creating PowerPoint presentations, or building web content, this guide provides clear guidance for writing effective alt text, platform-specific instructions for adding it, and real-world examples across different image types. Download the guide to keep these best practices front of mind as you create more inclusive digital content.
Important: Alt Text Doesn't Always Transfer Between Platform
Alt text added in one application (such as Canva, PowerPoint, or Word) may not automatically transfer when you export to another file format, particularly PDFs. Always verify that your alt text has transferred correctly, and be prepared to re-add it in the destination platform (e.g., using Adobe Acrobat Pro for PDFs) to ensure accessibility is preserved.
Not all images need the same approach to alt text. The key is understanding an image's purpose on the page. The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative offers an excellent resource to guide your decisions: the Alt Text Decision Tree.
Six Types of Images:
Informative Images
Photos, illustrations, and graphics that convey concepts or information need descriptive alt text capturing the essential message.
Example: A photo of students collaborating → "Three students working together on a group project in the library"
Decorative Images
Images used purely for visual appeal should have empty alt text (alt ="") so screen readers skip them entirely.
Example: Decorative borders, background patterns, design flourishes
Functional Images
Icons and buttons that perform actions should describe what happens when clicked, not what the image looks like.
Example: Printer icon → "Print this page" (not "printer icon")
Images of Text
When text appears in an image (avoid this when possible!), the alt text must include the exact same words.
Example: A quote graphic → include the full quote as alt text
Complex Images
Charts, graphs, and diagrams require comprehensive descriptions of the data or information they present.
Example: Bar chart → Describe the trend, key data points, or provide a link to the data table
Image Maps & Groups
Your Go-To Resources:
W3C Alt Text Decision Tree
This interactive flowchart walks you through a series of questions to determine the right alt text approach for any image. Bookmark it, share it with your team, and reference it whenever you're unsure.
Complete W3C Images Tutorial
For deeper guidance with examples across all six image types, explore the full tutorial from W3C Web Accessibility Initiative.
Context matters! The same image might need different alt text depending on where and why it's used. A bird photo on a parks website might simply need "Red cardinal," while the same photo on an ornithology site might require "Male northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) in breeding plumage."
This video from the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights provides essential context about alternative text—what it is, who it serves, and why it's a cornerstone of digital accessibility.
Now it's time to build your skills. Explore Section508.gov's Alternative Text training page for practical video tutorials for creating accessible images and implementing alt text across platforms and document types, including Microsoft Office and PowerPoint.
This November, faculty and staff from across all our campuses came together for the Digital Accessibility Transformational Seminar, a comprehensive professional development experience designed to build capacity and confidence in creating accessible digital content. Hosted by the National Federation of the Blind at their headquarters in Baltimore, participants explored practical strategies for making course materials, research outputs, and communications more inclusive. The seminar brought together 70 faculty, staff, and leaders to work through real-world scenarios, share challenges and solutions, and develop actionable plans for implementing accessibility improvements in their own contexts. The seminar also featured poster presentations from our 17 Boosting Course Accessibility mini grantees (featured below in the photograph) that detailed their course improvements for the upcoming spring semester.
The success of this seminar demonstrates our commitment to accessibility as a shared responsibility and ongoing journey. We are eager for our participants to serve as digital accessibility champions within their own departments, extending this seminar's impact across the University System of Maryland.
Audit and add alt text to your images, graphs, and charts in your Top 5 documents. Even small changes make a big difference!
As part of the USM's accessibility support, the Kirwin Center for Academic Innovation is offering monthly remediation sprints for faculty and staff across the state of Maryland. These sprints will focus on one of the Six Essential Steps each month. The Zoom remediation sprints will include a few minutes of overview content and then active work time for you to remediate your own documents and ask any questions you may have. You can register for each sprint using the links below.
Monday, December 8, 2-3 pm: Images Sprint, Register for the Sprint
Monday, January 12, 2-3 pm: Tables and Data Sprint, Register for the Sprint
Monday, February 9, 2-3 pm: Multimedia Sprint, Register for the Sprint
Monday, March 9, 2-3 pm: Sprint to Finish, Register for the Sprint
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