You can also add Alt Text to your images in Canvas. Simply click on your image to view the ‘Image Options’ button. Canvas ‘Image Options’ appears when the image is selected.
Similarly to MS Word, in Canvas a panel appears where you can add descriptive information about your image; or mark it as decorative to ensure that the image is ignored by assistive technologies.
Use the Alt Text Panel in Canvas to add descriptive text or mark your image as decorative.
Once your image has been added, open the ‘Picture Format’ tab and then click on the ‘Alt Text’ option.
The same principle applies in Canvas, simply select your text and use the ‘paragraph’ box to select an appropriate heading: Apply Alt Text to an image in MS Word by navigating to the ‘Picture Format tab and then accessing the ‘Alt Text’ option.
Add your descriptive text to the Alt Text Panel in word, there’s also a ‘Generate Description for me’ button, but you will need to ensure that the information that you want to convey is accurate. Graphs and Charts can also be summarised here.
You can also access the 'alt text' panel by right clicking on your image, and selecting 'view alt text'.
Excluding Alt text or marking your image as decorative, ensures that the image is ignored by assistive technologies.
Microsoft Guide: Add alternative text to a shape, picture, chart, SmartArt graphic, or other object
Now that you know how to add Alt Text, it’s equally important to understand how to write effective Alt Text. You should convey the purpose of the image in a sentence or two. Dont repeat the surrounding textual content in the Alt Text or include “an image of”. Diagrams and charts will require more detailed information, again conveying the purpose of diagram or chart.
Image Example
- A bad example of Alt Text for this image would be: Dog.
- A good example of Alt Text for this image would be: My dog paddy a king charles spaniel, half asleep on a chair.
Chart Example
- A bad example of a chart would be: A bar chart showing sales over time.
- A good example of a chart would include: A bar chart showing sales over time. In July, sales for brand A surpassed sales for brand B and kept increasing throughout the year.
