How to Add Alt Text in Word (Mac & Windows) — 2026 Guide
Alt text is the single most-overlooked accessibility task in teaching. Skip it, and any student using a screen reader hears nothing but the word "image" when they hit your slide deck. Here's how to add proper alt text in Microsoft Word in under 60 seconds — plus the 30-second rule that separates good alt text from bad.
What is alt text, exactly?
Alt text — short for "alternative text" — is a written description of an image that lives behind the image in the document. It's invisible to sighted readers, but screen readers (the software blind and low-vision students use) speak it aloud when they encounter the image.
Without alt text, a screen reader announces only the word "image." With it, students hear something meaningful like "Bar chart showing 2025 enrollment grew 12% over 2024."
How to add alt text in Word on Mac
In Word for Mac (versions 2019, 2021, and 365):
- Right-click the image (or Control-click on a Mac trackpad).
- From the context menu, choose "Edit Alt Text…"
- The Alt Text pane opens on the right.
- Type a 1–2 sentence description of what the image conveys.
- If the image is purely decorative (a divider line, stock photo of "people working"), tick the "Mark as decorative" checkbox instead. Screen readers will skip it entirely.
- Close the pane. The alt text is saved with the document.
How to add alt text in Word on Windows
The steps are nearly identical:
- Right-click the image.
- Select "View Alt Text…" (or "Edit Alt Text…" in newer versions).
- Type your description in the panel that opens.
- Or tick "Mark as decorative" for purely visual elements.
- The text is saved automatically.
If you don't see "Edit Alt Text" in the menu, your Word version is older than 2016. Update Word, or open the image with right-click → Format Picture → Layout & Properties → Alt Text.
The 30-second rule for writing good alt text
Most teachers either (a) skip alt text entirely, or (b) write something like "image" or "picture." Both fail accessibility audits. Here's a quick rule that takes 30 seconds and produces alt text that actually works:
"If I were describing this image to a student over the phone — without sharing my screen — what would I say?"
That's your alt text. Keep it under 125 characters when possible. If the image is more complex (a chart, diagram, or infographic), it's fine to go longer.
Good alt text vs. bad alt text
Good: "Bar chart showing fall enrollment grew 12% over 2024, driven by graduate programs."
Bad: "Bar chart."
Good: "Diagram of the water cycle: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, collection."
Bad: "Image of the water cycle showing arrows and clouds."
Good: "Photo of Frederick Douglass, c. 1860, formal portrait."
Bad: "Photo of a man wearing a suit and looking serious."
Common mistakes (and how to avoid them)
Mistake 1: Starting with "image of…" or "picture of…"
Screen readers already announce that it's an image. Saying "image of a flowchart" gets read as "image. Image of a flowchart." Just say "a flowchart."
Mistake 2: Repeating the caption
If a caption below the image already describes it, the alt text should add information, not duplicate it. Otherwise the student hears the same content twice in a row.
Mistake 3: Forgetting to mark decorative images
A page divider, a generic stock photo of a teacher at a whiteboard, your logo in the header — these don't convey information. Mark them decorative so screen readers skip them. Otherwise every student using a screen reader hears "image. Decorative divider line." on every page.
Mistake 4: Putting text inside an image without describing it
If your image contains text (a screenshot of an email, a meme, a quote on a graphic), the alt text MUST include that text. Otherwise students using screen readers can't access the information at all.
⚠ A common audit fail
Many teachers add alt text to Word files but forget the images they paste into Canvas pages directly. Canvas pages need alt text added through the Rich Content Editor's image properties — not the Word file. If you upload the Word file as a download, the Word alt text carries over. If you copy-paste from Word into a Canvas page, the alt text is often stripped.
Don't want to do this image-by-image?
Drop your Word file into the free Maxademics Canvas Fixer. It auto-detects images missing alt text, suggests descriptions, and returns a remediated file.
Open the free Fixer →Beyond Word: alt text in PowerPoint, PDF, and Canvas
The same rules apply across formats, but the workflow changes:
- PowerPoint: Same right-click → Edit Alt Text. Same Mark as Decorative option.
- PDF: Trickier. PDFs need to be "tagged" before alt text can be added — see our guide on tagging PDFs.
- Canvas pages: When inserting an image via the Rich Content Editor, the popup includes an "Alt Text" field. Fill it in then. If you skip it, Canvas defaults to the image's filename — which is useless to screen readers.
- Canvas Files: Files retain whatever alt text was set in the source document. So Word and PowerPoint alt text DO carry through to Canvas if you upload the file directly.
Want to go deeper on accessible course design?
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Universal Design for Learning
Hall, Meyer & Rose — the foundational text on UDL principles. Once you read it, alt text isn't a chore; it's part of how you design lessons.
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Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain
Zaretta Hammond — explains why accessibility matters from a brain-science + equity angle. Among the most-recommended ed books of the decade.
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- WebAIM: Alternative Text — the definitive guide
- WCAG 2.1 — 1.1.1 Non-text Content
- Microsoft's own alt text guide