Accessible Word (implementation guide)

6.2. Alternative texts

Graphics contain a short, concise alternative text. Graphics with no substantive meaning are marked as decorative.

What is meant by this?

To improve the approval of a Word document, all images and graphics contained in it should be provided with alternative texts that describe what can be seen in the image. An alternative text is a short and concise description of the content of the graphic that is read by screen readers and speech output devices to understand the content.

In the case of purely decorative images with no relevance to the content, the image should be labelled accordingly. In Word, a graphic or image can be marked as "decorative" to indicate that it does not contain any content relevant to the document and can therefore be skipped by screen readers.

Why is it important?

A suitable alternative text for an image is important as it enables all recipients to understand the content of an image. If an image has no alternative text or the alternative text is insufficient, the image becomes invisible to screen reader and speech output users. This means that these recipients miss out on important information that could be contained in the image.

An appropriate alternative text describes the image briefly and concisely and conveys how an image relates to the content of the document, for example. If the image contains important information that is not or cannot be presented differently in the text, it is important to include this information in the alternative text so that it can be recognised by screen readers and speech output. A detailed description of the image is not usually necessary for an alternative text. If an image contains a lot of important information, this should be included in the text itself or a detailed text alternative (4.3) should be provided. As a general rule, an alternative text should contain a maximum of 120 characters.

An example of a suitable alternative text for an image in Word would be: "A group photo of employees who took part in a company outing and are standing together in front of a mountain panorama." This alternative text tells users of a screen reader what can be seen in the image.

How can I implement/check it?

To add an alternative text for an image in Word, left-click on the image and select "Alternative text" from the "Image format" menu. Then enter a precise description of the content of the image in the text field. If the image is only decorative, mark it as such and leave the alternative text field empty. To mark an image as decorative, proceed as follows:

1. Select the image you want to mark as decorative.
2. Right-click on the image and select "Format Image" from the drop-down menu if you have a Windows computer. Alternatively, if you have a Mac, you can select "Display Alt Text" and a window/menu will open on the right-hand side
3. Select the "Alt text" item in the "Image format" tab.
4. In the Alt Text dialogue box on a Windows computer, select the "This image is decorative" checkbox, while on a Mac you can select the "Mark as decorative" option below the text field.
5. Click on "OK" to save the changes.

Word offers an integrated function that allows you to check whether an alternative text exists for a picture or not. You can also check for redundant alternative texts by reading the text around the image and ensuring that it does not match the alternative text.

To use the integrated function in Word that allows you to check whether an alternative text exists for an image, proceed as follows:

1. Select the image for which you want to check the alternative text.
2. Right-click on the image and select "Format Image" from the drop-down menu. With a Mac, you can alternatively select "Display Alt Text" and a window/menu will open on the right-hand side
3. Select the "Alt text" item in the "Image format" tab.
4. Check whether the text field for the alternative text is filled in. If so, the image contains an alternative text. If not, the alternative text is missing and should be added.

Word automatically generates its own ALT texts on request, but in many cases these do not fit and should therefore be checked and adapted if necessary.