Social Security Administration Guide: Alternate Text for Images

PDF (Adobe Acrobat Pro) implementation

If you are working with a master document in Microsoft Word format, it is better to edit the alt-text in Word before conversion to PDF. If you need to make changes to the master document, much less work is involved in conversion if the alt-text is already in the original Word file. For more guidance, see Agency specific information at the back of this document

To add alt-text to an image, first determine the type of image in order to prepare the appropriate alt-text wording (To begin, see the main types of image, p.3).

1. Open the ‘Touch Up Reading Order Panel’: Advanced… Accessibility… Touch Up Reading Order

2. Right click the image and select Edit Alternate Text…

3. Type in the appropriate alt-text.