Alt Text Workshop

... hello, welcome [short introduction here to lay the ground with our intentions for this workshop] ...

What is alt-text?

alternative (alt) text is a textual substitute for non-text content in web pages .

alternative text is the first sucess criteria of the standard called the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), stated by the World Wide Web Consortium: (WCAG 2.0 - WCAG 3.0 published a draft 09/2025)

1.1.1 Non-text Content: All non-text content that is presented to the user has a text alternative that serves the equivalent purpose, except for the situations listed below .

The exceptional situations listed below are: Controls/ Input, Time-Based Media, Test, Sensory, CAPTCHA, Decoration/Formatting/Invisible

alt text is commonly written/ found in the alt attribute of an html img tag. <img src="file.jpg" alt=" ">

Why alt-text?

https://wetdry.world/@ipg/113449765700357189 alt-text does not equal digital accessibility but can be a step towards it. (other steps towards accessibility can be: color contrasts, text sizes, clarity of a page navigation, using semantic html...)

alt-text on platforms

Different platforms have different approaches to whether and/or how they implement ALT Text to the images. Two examples that highlight this wide range of are Instagram and Tumblr.

Instagram gives users the option to provide Alt Text for their posts. If there is no user-provided Alt Text, the platform automatically generates one with an at-best mediocre outcome.

alt="Photo by Reductress on October 09, 2025. May be an illustration of ‎one or more people, poster, pen and ‎text that says '‎Phew! Art Not AI, Just Authentically Ugly לוע @reductress Roductress‎'‎‎."

other ways of alt-texting

to what extend can (or should) text represent visual media? what if we use alt-text not as a forced upon means of content translation or extra labor but as a method to convey situated perspective, emotion, detail? what does it mean to put something into words?

what else can we write alt-text about?

Alt Text Selfies
what could alt-text for a websites be like?

• Websites that write about their own process of making and accessibility alt-text as poetry has a section about itself, written by the ones who developed the site, together.net is a consent driven community software that has a whole page dedicated to its own accessibility
• alt text for ascii art

what other forms can this writing have?

Alt Text as Poetry
alt text as a form of preservation / archiving

Resources

• alt-text viewer Browser Extensions Firefox / Chrome
• What do you see? talk by Lola Odelola

Web accessibility guides

• from the W3C WAI
• accessibility developer guide
• wave is a browser based tool to check your websites accessibility