Images, Media, and Alt-Text

Image-only emails or documents that use images to convey text can cause many barriers to readability. Members of our community may use screen readers to access their emails and documents, might have visual impairments, or may be reading on their phones and have low bandwidth. Additionally, it’s important to remember that many people turn images off in their email clients.

In this example, an email is shown with images enabled on the left, and images disabled on the right. Because there was no text in the email body and no alternative "alt" text was added to the image, the email does not contain any content when images are not displayed.

If there is text embedded on an image, make sure to also include all details as text in the body of the email or the document, in case the image isn’t viewable.

When in doubt, ask yourself: is this image necessary to understand the content of this email or document?

Alt text serves as a brief yet informative description of the image. Remember to keep alt text concise and descriptive, capturing the essence of the image without duplicating the text in the email body.

Learn how to write helpful alt text.

For Gmail: After inserting your image in Gmail, click on the image, click on "Edit Alt Text", and add a description.

Document software such as Google Docs, Google Slides, Microsoft Office, and Microsoft PowerPoint also have support for alt text. Right-click after inserting your images to add alt text.

When you embed or link to a video or audio in an email or a document, add accurate captions to all videos and transcripts for audio content. Ensure media player controls, such as play and stop, can be activated with a keyboard.