Use alternative text when the images included in content are intentional, and they collaborate with other text on the page to help communicate the overall purpose of the story or content.

What is Alt-text and why is it important?

• Alternative (Alt) text is used to describe the appearance and function of an image to users who have low vision or are blind.
• Including Alt-text with your images ensures all users have equal access to content.
• If an image fails to load or the user has selected “block images” on their computer, the alt-text will be read by a screen reader.
• Search engines, like Google, use alternative text to rank webpages — including alt-text for images improves the web page rank.
• Including alt-text is a best practice of accessible web design.
• If one isn’t provided, a screen reader may announce the word “link” or the image file name, which is meaningless and irritating to users.

How do I write Alt-text?

1. Keep content to 2 sentences or less. Describe only the focus in the image. Descriptive elements (clothing, colour of hair, race) should not be included unless it is key to the image meaning.
2. Do not embellish alt-text with information you know but is not showing in the photo. Do not editorialize. Never start with “Image of” or “Picture of”. For example, “A boy selling newspapers” is preferred to “An image of a boy selling newspapers”.
3. Do not use a list of keywords as alt-text.
4. If an image is of a significant or well known location, you can mention the address. For example: 24 Sussex Drive, One World Trade Center, or 10 Downing Street.
5. Alt-text and a caption for an image should never be the same text.
6. A “decorative item” is something that does not provide any value to the content. A border, logo or photo can be marked as a “decorative item”. Decorative items do not require Alt-text.

• Two people taking a selfie.
• Two people taking a selfie at Niagara Falls.
• Two people wearing Brock University clothing pose for a selfie in front of Niagara Falls.
• The multicultural city of St. Catharines has many tourist sites close by to explore.

• Brock fourth-year Medical Sciences student, Alison Smoke, displays D2L’s Brightspace learning management system on her cellphone.
• A Brock university student shares how the D2L Brightspace learning management platform appears on her cellphone.

As the photo accompanies an article about the partnership between Brock and D2L’s learning management system, we call out Brightspace as it is visible on her phone.

• A researcher prepares samples in a lab.
• Samples are prepared in a lab at the Cairns Family Health and Bioscience Research Complex, located at Brock University.
• A researcher prepares samples in a lab at the Cairns Family Health and Bioscience Research Complex, located at Brock University.

You may not be providing information along with an image. When this occurs, include the facts from the image to create the alt-text.

• Winner of the 2022 Basil Stuart-Stubbs Book Prize, Brock University Professor Gregory Betts.

If an image contains information that is relevant to the topic (i.e. the name of the book) and will not cause the alt-text to be longer than 2 sentences, include it in the alt-text.

If the information will cause the alt-text to be longer than 2 sentences, include the information as a caption under the image.

The screen reader will not be able to read the title of the book in the photo.

• Infosource Inc., recognized Brock University as one of Canada’s top research universities in 2021.

Screen readers are not able to read text images. The alt-text automatically generated for this text image is “A sign with red text”. Use an alt-text and a caption if required, to best communicate all of the details in the image.