What is alt text? 

Alternative text (“alt text”) is a short sentence or list of words that provides a description of an image. It appears in place of an image that could not be loaded, allows visually impaired users to use screen readers to understand an image, and can provide better context to search engines that help surface our articles. Providing alt text is an important step in complying with the American Disabilities Act.

How do we automatically generate alt text?

When you upload any image as a .jpg, .png, or .jpeg file, we use Amazon Rekognition’s image analysis software to identify and tag each photo’s objects, people, text, scenes, and activities. It also recognizes famous figures through facial recognition. An example may be as simple as “This image may contain Zach Galifianakis, Jon Hamm, and Ferns.” 

What changes will I see in Copilot? 

When you upload a photo in Copilot, the alt text will be filled in, indicated by a purple frame around the field and the magic wand on the right. This is not a clickable wand, which differs from others you might find in Copilot. You can make any changes to the word list by clicking into the field, which will override the automated alt text on save.

Let us know if you have any questions!