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A Guide to Adding Image Descriptions to Your Social Media Posts

Most of the popular social media platforms allow users to add alt-text to their images. This resource provides step-by-step instructions for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

  • Subject(s):

    Digital Marketing, Image Descriptions

  • Resource Type(s):

    Standards and Best Practices, Step-by-Step

  • Audience:

    Technical

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Suggested Prerequisites

Before you read this, you might want to read:

Image Descriptions in Social Media Posts

On almost all social media platforms, the systems have ways to include alt-text into images! This enriches the experience for screen reader users, and can be helpful when images don’t load. 

Here are the steps to including alt-text for some of the most popular and commonly used social media platforms:

Twitter

How to add image descriptions in Tweets from twitter.com

  1. Click on the Tweet compose button, or press the “n” key to use the keyboard shortcut.
  2. Attach your photo(s). 
  3. To insert descriptive text, click Add description.
  4. Type your description of the image and click the Done button. To edit the description, re-open the Add description dialog prior to posting the Tweet. (The limit is 1000 characters.)
  5. You can add a description to each image in a Tweet.

Note: Image descriptions cannot be added to videos.

How to add image descriptions in Tweets from Twitter for iOS & Android

  1. Start by tapping the Tweet compose icon and attach your photo(s).
  2. On the image, tap the +Alt button to insert descriptive text.
  3. Type your description of the image and tap Done. Tap the description again to edit it prior to posting the Tweet. (The limit is 1000 characters.)
  4. You can add a description to each image in a Tweet.

Note: Image descriptions cannot be added to videos.

Facebook

Facebook creates auto-generated image descriptions, but they’re not notoriously unreliable. To override those descriptions, follow these steps:

How to add image descriptions to photos from facebook.com, and on iOS and Android

To see and edit alt text for a photo before you post it:

  1. Click Photo/Video at the top of your News Feed.
  2. Select the photo you want to add.
  3. Hover over the photo and click Edit.
  4. The automatically generated text will be shown on the left-hand side of your photo. Click Override generated alt text to edit it.
  5. Write your alt text in the box. To change back to the automatically generated text, click Clear.
  6. To save your alt text, click Save in the bottom left.

To change the alt text of a photo after you’ve posted it:

  1. Click the photo to open it.
  2. Click … in the top right and select Change alt text.
  3. Click Override generated alt text or change the alt text in the text box. You can also click Clear to change your edited alt text back to the automatically generated text.
  4. Click Save

Instagram

Just like Facebook, Instagram also uses auto-generated image descriptions. You definitely don’t want to rely on these! To check and modify those descriptions, follow these steps.

How to add image descriptions to photos from instagram.com, and on iOS and Android

  1. Start by taking a photo or uploading an existing photo to Instagram.
  2. Choose a filter and edit the image, then tap Next.
  3. Tap Advanced Settings at the bottom of the screen.
  4. Tap Write Alt Text.
  5. Write your alt text in the box and tap Done

To change the alt text of a photo after you’ve already posted it on Instagram

  1. Go to the photo and tap …
  2. Tap Edit.
  3. Tap Edit Alt Text in the bottom right.
  4. Write the alt text in the box and tap Done.

LinkedIn

How to add image descriptions to photos from LinkedIn.com

You can add or edit alt-text for images you upload from a desktop computer, by clicking Add description at the top right of your image.
Note: Adding or editing alt-text isn’t available on mobile devices.

Next Steps

1

Writing Image Descriptions

Best Practices for Writing Image Descriptions

This Best Practices document reviews key guidelines to writing image descriptions. Whether you are a publisher, freelancer, author, or anyone else, this document will help you make decisions about how and what to describe.

Subject(s): Image Descriptions
Resource Type(s): Standards and Best Practices
Audience:
Non-technical
2

Writing Descriptions for Digital Media

Introduction to Writing Alt-text for Digital Media (other than ebooks)

Images used on websites, social media, and other non-book content need image descriptions. The writing guidelines are mostly the same, but there are a few additional things to consider. This Introduction document looks at these,…

Subject(s): Digital Marketing, Image Descriptions
Resource Type(s): Checklist
Audience:
Introduction

External Links to More Information

AFB’s Social Media Accessibility Guidelines

Provides tips to make social media accessible to low vision and blind users, including using CamelCase on words in hashtags and URLs; providing image descriptions; and providing captions, video descriptions and transcripts for video.

Social Media Accessibility Guidelines

This page from Princeton University gives some guidelines for making social media posts more accessible. It covers alternative text for images, video captions, animated GIFs, using mixed case for hashtags so they will be read properly by screen readers, and use of emojis and emoticons.

Planning, creating and publishing accessible social media campaigns

A guide from the UK government on making social media content more accessible. It has information for content producers and designers on writing style, colour and contrast, fonts, and image and video. It also has information for community managers and publishers on ways to add alt text on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, and Youtube.

Use Plain Language

This brief article discusses the importance of using plain language, and offers tips on writing with clarity.

Content Source Acknowledgement

Twitter: Help Documents – “How to make images accessible for people” 

Facebook: Help Documents – “How do I edit the alternative text for a photo on Facebook?”

Instagram: Help Documents – “How do I edit the alternative text for a photo on Instagram?”

LinkedIn: Help Documents – “Adding Alternative Text to Images for Accessibility”