Note: as of late August 2019, LinkedIn may automatically add alt text to images. Check their alt text online help for more details.
Yesterday, I had a chat about alternative text for images with my Twitter colleague Stanford Griffin.
He asked about managing alternative text for images in Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Hey, my #a11y friends. How do you handle #alttext in #socialmedia? #Twitter is easy (Thank you @TwitterA11y), but what about for #Facebook, #Instagram, and #LinkedIn? I’ve just been writing in a description at the bottom of each post. #accessbility
— Stanford Griffith (@StanfordAlan) February 26, 2019
We talked about how Buffer and Hootsuite offered support for alternative text for images in Twitter.
We spoke about adding alternative text for images in Instagram.
And then we started talking about LinkedIn’s alternative text for images.
Similar to Facebook who added alternative text last year, LinkedIn added the alternative text feature but didn’t announce it.
I don’t understand why neither social media company didn’t announce the highly requested feature to their users.
Which reminded me, I’ve been putting off publishing a tutorial about LinkedIn’s alternative text. Here it is!
What is Alternative Text?
Alternative text, also known as alt text, allows you to add text descriptions to photos, diagrams, and illustrations-any image on the web.
It provides more information about the function and content of images.
When you add alternative text to your images, the content is accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired.
In addition, if an image can’t be downloaded or if a user has disabled images from displaying (which I do in my email app), alternative text displays in place of the image.
Alternative text also provides semantic meaning to search engines who can’t “see” images.
How to Add Alternative Text to LinkedIn Images
To add alternative text to LinkedIn images, you must be using a desktop/laptop computer.
As of February 27, 2019, adding alternative text for images is not available in the LinkedIn mobile apps.
Once you’ve logged into your LinkedIn account on the desktop, here’s how to add alternative text to your images:
- In Start a post at the top of your LinkedIn timeline, select the image icon
- Select the image you want to add
- Once the image displays, select Add description
- Add your descriptive text in the Alternative Text box. You have 120 characters to describe your image.I like that LinkedIn tracks how many characters you’ve used in your description.
- Select Save in the Alternative Text box.
That’s it.
Summary
I’m glad to see LinkedIn added alternative text for images; it makes the images accessible to everyone.
I hope LinkedIn expands the feature soon to their mobile apps.
Did you know LinkedIn added the alternative text feature? Have you used it?
