Alternative, Actual, or Expansion Text - Which to Use & Best Practices (Desktop and Advanced Editor)

Images, graphics, and figures need to be described to individuals using assistive technology. Figure tags can be given alternative text, actual text, or expansion text. The Properties panel (for any tag) includes options for adding any of these text options:

• Alternative text:  Used most of the time, alternative text describes the image or tells the listener the relevant content that is being shown visually. 
• Actual text:  Use this option when the image is a picture of text. A common saying is "use actual text when you are actually replacing text." 
• Expansion text:  Used for abbreviations and acronyms.

Important Notes About Using These Three Text Options:

When a screen reader “lands on” a tag in the Tags tree, it refers to the properties of that tag to see if there is alternative, actual, or expansion text provided.  If there is, it will read the text and move on to the next tag in the tree.  There are two very important things to keep in mind:

1. If any of the boxes contain text then that is all that will be read for that tag.  In other words, a screen reader will read the alternative text and skip any text that is actually in the tag itself.
2. Do not put information in more than one field (Alternative and Actual, for example).  Some screen readers will only read the content in one of the boxes and then proceed to the next tag in the tree.  If there is information in more than one field, it may be ignored.

Alternative Text Best Practices

Through proper authoring of alternative, actual, and expansion text, someone using assistive technology will have access to the same important information that a sighted reader would from reading a document. Assistive technology will tell the listener that they have just “landed” on a Figure tag, in most cases stating "graphic" or "image" and immediately sharing the provided alt, actual, or expansion text.  With that knowledge, it is not necessary to restate the term "image of..." in the alternative text, but there are other clarifying descriptors that can be very helpful to those consuming the information. For example, telling someone that the graphic is a drawing or photo can be helpful in sharing the needed information.
 

Along those same lines, make sure that the Alternative text is sufficiently descriptive.  Keeping in mind that Alternative (Actual, or Expansion) text is the only way people who are using screen readers can access the image and its content, make sure that all relevant information is provided.  At the same time, avoid extraneous information. A common strategy is to be as descriptive as possible, but also remain as concise as possible.
 

Unfortunately, providing alternative text is not a formulaic experience with a set-in-stone rulebook. With that said, consider what information a graphic shares with a sighted reader and make sure that it is also conveyed to someone using assistive technology. 

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