Social Security Administration Guide: Alternate Text for Images

Extraneous information (‘image of…’, ‘picture of…’ etc.)

Screen reader software is usually set to announce certain elements as a means to help the reader stay oriented. For example, the screen reader will say “Table…”, “List…”, “Image…” before the element.

“Image of Pastel looking at her handler.”
Reader hears it twice: “Image. Image of Pastel looking at her handler.”.

“Pastel looks at her handler.”

Exception: For charts and diagrams, explain the type at the start of the alt-text. For example, “Pie chart of…”, “Organizational chart of…”.