How to add alt text to pictures for accessibility

Alt text for a picture is set in the Properties panel in Publish by Zaweba. Select the picture and type a short description into its alt text property. If you've connected your own AI account, Describe pictures can draft descriptions for you, and Use as alt text stores one per picture for you to review. Publish is free, offline software for Windows.

Alt text is a short written description of a picture. People who use screen readers hear it in place of the picture, and it helps anyone when a picture fails to load or the reader wants to know what they're looking at.

Writing it yourself

Click the picture and look in the Properties panel. The alt text property is optional, shown and editable there. Type a sentence that says what the picture shows and why it's on the page.

Good alt text is short and specific. "Children planting a tree in the school garden" tells the reader far more than "photo" or "image1.jpg". Skip phrases like "picture of", since the reader already knows it's a picture.

Think about why the picture is there. On a cafe menu, a picture of a cake might simply need "Lemon drizzle cake". On a newsletter about a charity walk, the same kind of photo might need "Walkers crossing the finish line at Dale Park".

Drafting it with AI

Describe pictures sends the selected pictures, or all the page's pictures if none is selected, as small JPEGs to a model that can see. The model returns a description for each one, and Use as alt text stores them as each picture's alt text.

Always read what comes back. AI can describe what's visible but doesn't know who the people are, what the event was or why the picture matters to your story. Edit the drafts in the Properties panel to add that context.

The AI works with your own account, such as Claude, OpenAI or Gemini, or a local model on your PC. Nothing is sent until you ask, and every AI change is one undo step. Without an account, the action is greyed out and you can still type alt text by hand.

Which pictures need it

Pictures that carry meaning need a description: photos of people and events, charts, maps and anything the text refers to.

Purely decorative items, such as a swirl in a border or a background texture, usually don't. Describing every ornament makes a screen reader tedious to listen to.

Logos are worth a brief description, usually just the organisation's name.

Making it part of the routine

The easiest time to write alt text is when you place the picture. You know why you chose it, and it takes ten seconds. Leaving it to the end of a 12-page newsletter makes it a chore.

If you're working from a template, remember that the sample pictures may be replaced by your own. Write fresh alt text for each new picture rather than keeping the template's.

Publications shared online as PDFs are often read on screens, so accessibility matters there too. Add alt text to the pictures in your next newsletter and you'll find the habit sticks quickly.