Conversation

A great thing to do for alt text is to simply describe what’s in the image. It doesn’t have to be Pulitzer Prize winning prose. Something as simple as “a cute black kitten sitting in a tiny bandage box,” or “a middle-aged man with graying brown hair looks directly into the camera as someone pours beer over his head.”

What isn’t as helpful is when one simply repeats the text of the toot to which the image is attached (unless the toot itself is descriptive text) or oversimplified descriptions like “a cat” or “a man and beer.” Or when someone posts a comic in which two cute foxes have dialog about sadness and hope, but then for alt text writes something like “a comic about a fox being sad” without describing the foxes and their actions or repeating the dialogue.

Descriptive alt text is awesome because it lets everyone in on the joke or the beauty or the silliness or the cuteness. Access is sexy, friends.