DESCRIPTION OF IMAGES

Description: Black Lives Matter sign being held in a crowd.

Object: Black Lives Matter sign

Action: being held

Context: in a crowd

We can add more detail to this description to paint a more vivid picture. In most cases,

I recommend adding the detail with the object-action-context format. This makes the

description more concise.

A concise way to add detail: A painted Black Lives Matter cardboard sign being

held anonymously in a blurred out crowd in front of a stone building.

A redundant way to add detail: Black Lives Matter sign being held in a crowd.

Behind them, there is a building made of stone. The crowd is blurred out. The sign is

painted on cardboard. The person holding the sign is anonymous.

You can see that the redundant example repeats a lot of words and skips from one
thing to another, making it longer and more disorienting. The object-action-context

format helps fixate on the primary focus, and then slowly expands to get the full

picture.

However, sometimes there is so much detail that adding it will cause one big run-on

sentence. In this case, it’s better to keep the first sentence short and in an object-

action-context format. This way, people can get a basic understanding and skip

through the rest of the details if they want.

Description: A tattooed person holding a sign that says, “Teach your children well,”

in a crowd of people. In the middle of the sign, there’s an illustration of the earth with

2 raised fists on either side that have a rainbow pride square background, a trans pride

circle background, and brown skin tone stripes on the fists.

Object: person

Action: holding a sign

Context: crowd

To be even more descriptive, you can go into the meaning of the visual imagery. This is

where image descriptions are useful to sighted people too because they provide an

additional explanation for things that might not be obvious otherwise.

Example of adding meaning: The raised fist is a symbol of solidarity and

specifically Black power as popularized by the Black Panther Party in the 1960s. The

rainbow pride flag has rainbow stripes and symbolizes general LGBTQ pride. The

trans pride flag has pink, blue, and white stripes and celebrates pride for the trans and

gender non-conforming umbrella.

This is obviously a longer commitment and might not be necessary if you have written

other content in a surrounding article, or if you’d rather reserve your energy from

explaining and encourage people to look it up themselves. And obviously, if you

choose to explain symbolism, then make sure to do the proper research.

How context impacts the description

Digital images don’t just exist in a vacuum, they have surrounding context on

whatever app or website they are found on. We often come across images when we

read news articles, scroll through our friends’ social media, go online shopping, etc.
Description: dog sitting in a field of autumn leaves

For an image on a news article, that description works reasonably well. It’s objective,

concise, and descriptive while also quite brief. However, if the photo is on a dog

breeder website that has images of several different breeds of dogs, it doesn’t actually

communicate much useful information (especially if every description just says “dog”).

For that reason, I’d include the breed and more visual descriptions of the dog.

Dog breeder website description: light brown pitbull dog breed with a black nose

and short, pointed ears

If I am an artist who took the photo of the dog and want to showcase my skills and

evoke some emotion, I’d probably want to add more detailed descriptions. This is of

course subjective based on the type of artist I am and how I want the audience to

receive my work.

Artist’s website description: a photo of a light brown dog with short ears and a

pink tongue sticking out, sitting in a field of autumn leaves. The dog is in focus while
the sunlight reflects off the light orange and yellow leaves, fading into the background.

If the image is on a site or app with several hundred images, perhaps for an animal

science textbook or a flashcards app, then it’s better to optimize for quick and easy

scanning of content. Perhaps “dog in field” or even just “dog” will suffice in that

context.

This section is new and very much in progress. If you have additional thoughts about

how context impacts image descriptions, feel free to reach out! (Contact info at the

bottom.)
Describing race and gender

In general, I recommend describing race and gender if (1) it’s relevant to the image,

(2) if you know what their identity is, and (3) if the way you’re describing it is

consistent with other descriptions.

It’s relevant if it’s an essential part of the message — such as a joke specifically about

identity or celebrating the radical visibility of marginalized people. It’s known if the

people in the photo have confirmed their identity. It’s consistent if you’re describing

everyone’s race and not just people of color (rather assuming white as the default).

For example, the stock photo project Disabled and Here has created a library

specifically of disabled BIPOC (Black and Indigenous People of Color). They have also

kindly provided image descriptions! This is an example of describing identity that is

relevant, known, and consistent.

Description: Three Black and disabled folx (a non-binary
person holding a cane, a woman sitting in a power wheelchair,
and a woman sitting in a chair) partially smiling at the camera
while a rainbow pride flag drapes on the wall behind them.

In many situations, mentioning race or gender might not be

relevant at all. And while it might be tempting to label folks as
“women” or “men” there is the risk of misgendering them. It’s
actually better to say “person” or “people” and talk about
physical characteristics more literally instead of assigning
gender to every presentation (e.g. say “person with long hair”
instead of “woman” or “femme-presenting person”).
Description: Four people sitting on a sidewalk bench, most
wearing sunglasses and heels and one with a big brown dog, in a
city on a sunny day.

Keep in mind that this article is written by a nonbinary person!

Because I’ve experienced so much misgendering, I’m inclined to
avoid gendering people in most of my descriptions. However, I
recognize this isn’t everyone’s experience and there are many
situations where gendering people is important for visibility and
representation. For that reason, I encourage you to write in a
way that feels most genuine to you while also being respectful of
others.
Description: Graphic titled “Protesting safely” at the top in lavender text on dark

purple background. It includes 3 sections: “What to wear,” “What to bring,” and

“Don’t bring” all with graphic illustrations. In the light purple “What to wear” section,

it says, “nondescript, solid color, layered clothing; cover identifying tattoos, goggles &

mask, emergency contacts written down, heat resistant gloves, and tie your hair up.”

In the medium purple “What to bring” section, it says, “water for drinking & tear gas,

snacks, cash/change & ID, washcloth, bandages & first aid supplies, ear plugs, and

protest signs. In the light red “Don’t bring” section, it says, “cell phone without first

turning off Face/Touch ID, going on airplane mode, and disabling data, jewelry,

anything you don’t want to be arrested with, and contact lenses.”

I choose not to go into detail describing visuals if the text essentially already describes

them and if the description is already pretty lengthy. In this case, the goal of the image

is definitely to convey information, therefore I felt describing the graphics would be

distracting.
A few last tips
Because images are just a collection of pixels and vectors, text is
not available to screen readers (sometimes screen readers can
pick up text, but this doesn’t appear to be consistent). Make sure
to transcribe all the text in the image if you’re providing a
description.

There are a few screen reader limitations to keep in mind. Be

sure to write hashtags in title case #ForExampleLikeThis so
that screen readers can decipher individual words. Also, avoid
all caps because screen readers sometimes interpret those one
letter at a time.

Most social media platforms these days offer an alt text option.
From what I have heard from the community, it’s actually better
to put the description in the caption instead. This way, it’s
also visible to screen magnifier users and sighted people who
might need or benefit from the description. (It’s actually unclear
to me whether we should also add a full description or
abbreviated version in the alt tag if we are adding to the caption.
If you have thoughts or ideas about this, please reach out!
Contact info at the bottom).

If you’re describing something that requires some subject matter

expertise, it’s helpful to add a short explanation for
additional context. For example, me and my opponent training
BJJ (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a grappling martial art).
Of course, people have limited time and energy, and image
descriptions require time and energy. In my opinion, it’s better
to have something than nothing. Better write a description,
even if it’s super brief, so that the image is accessible rather than
nothing at all.