Infographic Alt Text: 12 Real Examples, Line by Line
By AutoBoost Team · 2026-10-29 · 8 min read
All 10 infographic slides on one UKHSA blog post had empty alt text. On 29 October 2026 we fetched the HTML of pages on 64 sites, looking for infographics on government, health, charity and marketing pages. 43 sites loaded, 12 blocked us so we skipped them, and 9 had nothing at the address we tried. Many of the 43 that loaded had no infographic we could read in the page source. This guide uses 12 infographics from 10 sites where the alt text, or the lack of it, was right there in the HTML. Each is quoted exactly as it appears in the page source, with the page it came from.
Key takeaways
- Only 2 of the 12 infographics had alt text we would call good. Both came from one site and both run to more than 200 characters.
- 8 of the 12 had a clear fault. Empty or missing alt text was the biggest group.
- The other faults were file names (2), a broken character code, a 717 character list, an "Alt text:" label and a two word caption that says nothing.
- Infographics are mostly text. The good examples say what the graphic covers and do not read out every word on it.
Twelve infographics, quoted in full
| Site | Alt text | Characters | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| NCSC, 2SV infographic | Infographic from the National Cyber Security Centre explaining how two-step verification (2SV) adds an extra layer of security to online accounts, which accounts should be protected, different types of 2SV, and how to enable it. | 228 | Good |
| NCSC, Cyber Aware tips infographic | Cyber Aware infographic from the National Cyber Security Centre showing five top tips for staying secure online: use a strong password for your email, enable two-step verification (2SV), back up important data, keep devices updated, and use a browser password store or password manager. | 286 | Good |
| NCSC, 10 steps to cyber security infographic | Missing (no alt attribute) | 0 | Fault: missing |
| gov.scot, Labour Market Trends August 2026 | Infographic displaying key trends in labour market statistics for Scotland and the UK. The statistics from tables 1A above, along with charts 6, 8, and 10 from elsewhere in this publication are displayed. | 205 | Fine: says what it covers, not what it shows |
| gov.scot, Children's Social Work Statistics 2020-21 | Empty | 0 | Fine: empty, but the text under the image gives the figures |
| UKHSA blog, 10 facts about the nation's health in 2017 | Empty (all 10 slides) | 0 | Fault: empty on images that carry the facts |
| Samaritans, research on our services | Caller outcomes infographic FINAL.jpg | 37 | Fault: file name |
| Age UK Cornwall, Work Well impact | 2025 - Work Well Q1 Infographic.png | 35 | Fault: file name |
| Oxfam, Community Consent Index 2015 | Infographic on Community's right to decide. Credit: Oxfam | 62 | Fault: broken character code in the alt text |
| BHF, names for sugar infographic | Agave nectar, Agave syrup, Barley malt syrup, Beet sugar, Blackstrap molasses, Brown rice syrup, Brown sugar, Cane juice, Cane sugar, Caramel, Carob syrup, Coconut blossom nectar, Coconut sugar, Concentrated apple juice, Corn sugar, Corn syrup, Crystallised fructose, Dark muscovado sugar, Date sugar, Date syrup, Dextrose, and so on for 50 names in all | 717 | Fault: too long, a whole list read out |
| Neil Patel, how to create an infographic | Alt text: Infographic about solar power | 39 | Fault: starts with the label "Alt text:" and names only the topic |
| Contently, infographic for marketers | blog post | 9 | Fault: describes nothing on a 3,293 pixel tall infographic |
A few notes on the table. The NCSC rows all come from the NCSC infographics page, which has four infographics with alt text and one without. The gov.scot labour market alt text has a double space after the first full stop, exactly as in the source. The BHF alt text is cut in the table after "Dextrose"; the full 717 characters list 50 names, and the page it sits on is the BHF names for sugar infographic. The Oxfam alt text shows the code ' on screen in place of an apostrophe, because the apostrophe was escaped twice. We checked 5 Age UK Cornwall pages. Across them, 8 infographic images had either a file name as alt text (6) or no alt attribute (2).
Say what the graphic covers, not every word on it
The two good examples came from the NCSC. An infographic is mostly words, so its alt text has a different job from a photo's. Both examples do the same four things.
- They say it is an infographic and who made it. "Infographic from the National Cyber Security Centre" and "Cyber Aware infographic from the National Cyber Security Centre" tell a listener what kind of image they are missing and whose advice it is.
- They name the topic in plain words. Two-step verification (2SV) and staying secure online.
- They list what the graphic covers. The 2SV one lists the four things it answers: why 2SV helps, which accounts to protect, the types, and how to switch it on. A listener can decide whether they need the full detail.
- They give the content in full only when it is short. The Cyber Aware graphic has five tips, so the alt text lists all five in one sentence. When a graphic has more than that, list the sections, not every line.
Things to leave out:
- Colours, icons, fonts and layout. None of the good examples describe how the graphic looks.
- A file name, or a label such as "Alt text:". That is the Neil Patel fault.
- Long lists. The BHF alt text reads out 50 sugar names, and a listener has to hear all of it before the page moves on.
If the graphic holds a lot of text, put that text on the page as real text, or link to a text version, and keep the alt text to a short summary.
When the text beside the graphic does the work
The gov.scot children's example shows the one case where an empty alt can pass. Its alt text is empty, but the figures sit in the paragraph and bullet list right under the image, so a screen reader user still gets the facts. That works only when the text really does repeat what the graphic says. On the UKHSA page the 10 facts sit inside the slides and the alt text is empty on all of them, so nothing is read out.
Blanks, file names and a 717-character list
Counted from the table, 8 of the 12 had a fault.
- Empty or missing: 2. One missing alt attribute (NCSC, 10 steps) and one empty alt on UKHSA, where it affects all 10 slides on the page. Empty alt text is right for decoration. These are not decoration.
- File name: 2. Samaritans and Age UK Cornwall both use the file name, with ".jpg" or ".png" at the end. These are the upload names, not descriptions.
- Too long: 1. The BHF alt text is 717 characters, a list of names.
- Broken code: 1. Oxfam's apostrophe is written as
', which shows as raw code. - Label and topic only: 1. Neil Patel's "Alt text: Infographic about solar power" starts with a label and says nothing about what the graphic shows.
- Describes nothing: 1. Contently uses "blog post" for a long infographic about content marketing.
The other 4 were good or fine. We did not find any keyword stuffing, and no alt text said "image of". The mistakes on infographics were mostly blanks and file names, plus one overlong list.
Why 200 to 300 characters is right for infographics
From the 9 examples that had text: the four shortest, at 9, 35, 37 and 39 characters, said nothing useful. They were a two word caption, two file names and a labelled topic. Oxfam's, at 62 characters, named the topic but was damaged by the broken code. The two good ones ran to 228 and 286 characters, one long sentence each. The gov.scot example, at 205 characters, was about the same length but said less, because it points to tables and charts instead of saying what the infographic covers. The longest, at 717 characters, was a list of 50 names, which is too much for alt text.
A useful range from this sample is about 200 to 300 characters, written as one or two sentences. That is longer than you would write for a photo, because the image is full of information. If you need more than that, move the detail into the page text.
Tip: the upload name is not a description
Infographics tend to be uploaded straight from a design tool, so the media library often holds them under whatever name the design tool gave the file, with the alt field left blank. That matches the file name and empty faults above. Before you approve a draft, check that it says it is an infographic, names the topic and lists what the graphic covers, and edit it down if the graphic is text heavy. The same thinking applies to chart alt text, table alt text and map alt text, and the main bulk alt text guide covers the whole library.
The free AutoBoost SEO plugin links your WordPress site to the AutoBoost SEO app. The app writes missing alt text for the images in your posts in bulk, and it saves to the post and the media library once you approve each one.