Writing Effective Image Descriptions for Screen Readers

Web sites like Twitter and Facebook and tools for web design let you add descriptions to your images so that they can be read by screen readers and other assistive devices. RobotHugs, who is a user experience designer in Toronto, has written a Twitter thread on how to make these descriptions more effective.

There's some good advice here. For example, "you generally don't have to say 'image of' or 'photograph of'. Just describe what the image is conveying - what the user is intended to get out of seeing it."

Tweet: Don't worry TO, It's going to get better soon!!

Unhelpful description: Toronto weather forecast

Helpful description: Forecast for Toronto temperatures, showing -18 Celsius today improving to -1 Celsius by Tuesday."

This is definitely something I'll have to keep in mind in the future, especially on Twitter.