Accessibility Advice Series: Adding alt-text on Facebook

With 2.91 billion active users and 36% of the world’s population on Facebook, we would like to give you some handy tips on making that platform just a bit more accessible for blind or low vision users too. Have you heard of “Alt-Text”?

Most social media platforms have the feature to add alt-text to posts that feature images, to help people who are blind, deafblind or have low vision understand what the image is. It’s important to be inclusive in the digital landscape as well as in real life.

It’s easy to assume that someone who is blind or has low vision can’t appreciate your content. By including alt-text, you make your content more accessible to people in our community – there’s a range of accessible technology available which reads these descriptions to the user.

The best kinds of alt-text provide a good description of the image, like “a black Labrador puppy sitting on the carpet giving ‘puppy dog eyes’ to the camera”.

Here’s how to add alt text on Facebook:

1. Start by uploading a photo to your post as usual.
2. The “Create Post” screen should come up.
   Proceed to click Edit and then go to Alternative Text.
3. A text box will show up on the left side of your photo.
   Click “Custom Alt Text”.
4. Now you’re able to write your alt text in the box.
   Don’t forget to make it as detailed as possible!

 

If you’d like any more information about how to make things more digitally accessible, check out our website – it’s full of advice that you can use to be more inclusive to people who are blind, deafblind or have low vision.

Alternatively, give us a call on 0800 24 33 33 to speak to someone about any other accessibility help you require.