How to add alt text to images

Audience: Teachers

Alt text (alternative text) is a helpful feature that makes images and multimedia content on Seesaw accessible for users who are blind or have low vision. Seesaw automatically creates basic alt text for student posts, but you can enhance it by using the Caption tool or by adding specific alt text for each object in Creative Canvas. These tools help screen readers provide accurate descriptions of the content for students and families, promoting accessibility and inclusivity.

What is Alt Text?

Alt text (alternative text) is used to describe the appearance and function of an image on a page. Adding alternative text to images is a key principle of web accessibility and supports users who have low vision or are blind. Assistive technologies like screen readers read the alt text so users are able to perceive and understand the content on the page. 

Why Add Alt Text?

When you add multimedia content to Seesaw, Seesaw generates generic alt text for your content. For example, for student responses to activities, the alt text will describe an overview of the post contents: “Emily’s post, in response to Writer’s Workshop, 3 pages, contains voice”. 

If you want to further customize the alt text for your content to provide additional detail or context, Seesaw has additional tools: 

1. Using the caption tool to provide a longer description of the post content.
2. Adding per object alt text to content in activities templates for students.

Using the Caption tool to add alt text

For students and families who have low vision or use screen readers, we recommend using the Caption tool to add descriptive captions to posts, student responses, and announcements that contain images to make them more accessible. 

For family members, captions can also be automatically translated if the family member's device is set to a different language. Learn more about translation.     

To add a caption, choose the quote button on the bottom left of the Creative Canvas to add a description of to be associated with the post page. When the post is viewed, this caption will be read back for students and families who use screen readers with the Seesaw app and website.

Using per object alt text in the Creative Canvas 

Adding alt text to images, shapes, and videos to your activity templates is one way to make your lessons or announcements more accessible. 

On the web version of Seesaw, students using a screen reader can tab between the elements on the Creative Canvas of an Activity. If alt text has been added to them, the screen reader will read it back. Learn more about how Seesaw works with screen readers.

1. To add alt text, open the Activity template for your Activity.
2. Add an object or multimedia element to your canvas, like a photo, video, voice, shape or label.
3. Select your object and tap the three dots [...] button.
4. Choose the Accessibility menu option.
5. Enter your alt text. For labels, any text already entered into them is the alt text by default, but you can change that if you'd like.
6. If you have added an object to your canvas that is purely decorative, you can disable accessibility for that object by unchecking the checkbox. This means it will not be discoverable by the tab key or by screen readers.   

This feature is currently only available on the web version of Seesaw.