How to Add Alt Text to a Chart in Excel

Your Excel chart might look perfect, displaying trends and insights with crystal clarity. But for a segment of your audience, it’s completely invisible. If your charts don’t have alt text, people using screen readers will have no idea what data you’re presenting. This article will show you exactly how to add descriptive alt text to your charts in Excel, making your data accessible to everyone.

What is Alt Text and Why Does It Matter for Charts?

Alternative text, or "alt text," is a written description of a visual element like a picture, shape, or, in this case, a chart. Its primary job is to provide context and meaning for people who are blind or have low vision and use screen readers. A screen reader is assistive technology that reads the content of a screen aloud, and when it encounters an image, it reads the alt text.

Without alt text, a screen reader might just say "Chart" or "Object," leaving the user with no information. That’s like handing someone a report with a huge blank space in the middle. The entire point of the chart - the data, the trend, the insight - is lost.

Making your spreadsheets accessible isn't just a compliance requirement in many industries, it's a fundamental part of creating professional, inclusive, and genuinely useful documents. Good alt text gives everyone equal access to the insights you've worked hard to uncover.

How to Add Alt Text to an Excel Chart: A Step-by-Step Guide

Adding alt text in modern versions of Excel (Microsoft 365, 2021, and 2019) is a straightforward process. The steps are nearly identical whether you're working on Windows or macOS.

Right-click on the border of your chart. Be sure to select the entire chart object, not an individual element like a bar or a legend entry.
From the context menu that appears, select Edit Alt Text... (or sometimes View Alt Text...).

This will open the Alt Text pane on the right side of your Excel window.

In the text box, type your description of the chart. (We’ll cover what makes a good description in the next section.)
Excel automatically saves the text as you type it, so there is no need to click a save button. Simply close the pane by clicking the "X" when you're done.

That’s it! The alt text is now embedded in your chart object.

For Older Versions of Excel (2016 and Earlier)

If you're using an older version, the process is slightly different:

Right-click on the chart border.
Select Format Chart Area... from the menu.
In the Format Chart Area pane, click on the icon that looks like a box with arrows for size and direction - it's usually labeled Size & Properties.
Expand the Alt Text section. You’ll see fields for both a Title and a Description. For modern screen readers, everything should go into the Description box.

Best Practices for Writing Meaningful Chart Alt Text

The goal is to communicate the chart's primary insight, not just identify it as a chart. Simply writing "Bar chart showing sales" is a missed opportunity. Excellent alt text bridges the gap between seeing the data and understanding it.

Follow the "Triangle Method" for effective chart descriptions:

1. Start with the "What"

Begin by stating the chart type and what data it represents. This gives the user immediate context.

Example: "A line chart tracking website sessions per month from January to June."

2. Add the "So What?"

This is the most crucial step. What is the key takeaway or main conclusion of the chart? Why did you include it in your report? This summarizes the insight for someone who can't see the visual trend.

Example: "The main trend shows consistent growth, with a significant spike in traffic in May."

3. Provide Important Details (Briefly)

If relevant, include a few supporting data points or context to round out the description. Don’t list every single value, just the "highs," "lows," or key values that support your conclusion.

Example: "Sessions grew from 5,000 in January to 18,000 in May, before settling at 16,500 in June."

Putting It All Together: Good vs. Bad Examples

Let's look at how this plays out with a fictional bar chart comparing social media engagement rates.

Bad Alt Text Examples:

"Chart of SM engagement." (Too vague)
"Image." (No information)
"Bar chart. Instagram 4.5%, TikTok 3.8%, Facebook 1.2%, Twitter 0.5%." (This is just data, not an insight.)

Good Alt Text Example: "Vertical bar chart comparing social media engagement rates by platform for Q2. It shows that Instagram had the highest rate at 4.5%, more than three times higher than Facebook's 1.2%. Twitter had the lowest engagement at only 0.5%."

This example is effective because it names the chart type, states its purpose, highlights the main conclusion (Instagram’s dominance), and provides key data points for context, all in two simple sentences.

What Not to Include in Your Alt Text

Knowing what to leave out is just as important as knowing what to include.

Redundant phrases: Avoid starting with "Image of..." or "Picture of...". Screen readers already announce that the object is an image or chart, so this just wastes the user's time. Get straight to the point.
A data dump: Do not just copy and paste the entire data table behind the chart. The purpose of alt text is to provide a concise summary, not a screen's worth of numbers. If the exact data is essential, include a clearly labeled data table in the spreadsheet itself and reference it.
Colors: Don't describe the colors unless they convey specific meaning that isn't captured elsewhere. For example, instead of "The red bar shows a decline," say "Sales for the quarter showed a decline." Proper chart labeling should make colors unnecessary for interpretation anyway.

How to Check Your Entire Workbook for Accessibility

Manually checking every single chart in a large report can be tedious. Fortunately, Excel has a built-in tool to help you find accessibility issues quickly.

Go to the Review tab in the ribbon.
Click on Check Accessibility.

The Accessibility pane will open, listing any issues it finds, such as "Missing object description." Clicking on an item in the list will take you directly to the chart or object that needs alt text. This is an efficient way to make sure you haven’t missed anything before sharing your final document.

What About "Mark as Decorative"?

In the Alt Text pane, you'll see a checkbox labeled Mark as decorative. Checking this box tells a screen reader that the object is not important and can be skipped entirely.

For charts, you should almost never use this option.Charts nearly always present important information that is crucial to understanding the report. This option should only be used for purely ornamental visual elements, like a background shape or a stylistic border that serves no functional purpose.

Alt Text Carries Over When You Export or Share

The time you spend writing good alt text pays off beyond Excel. The descriptions you add are embedded within the chart object itself. This means that if you:

Copy and paste your chart into Microsoft Word or PowerPoint.
Save your Excel file as a PDF (make sure to use "Save As" and select PDF).

...the alt text will travel with the chart. One good description now ensures your data remains accessible no matter where it's presented.

Final Thoughts

Adding thoughtful alt text is a simple step that transforms your Excel charts from exclusive visuals into inclusive communication tools. It ensures that the insights you’ve uncovered are available to everyone on your team, regardless of how they access the information. It shifts your work from just showing data to truly sharing knowledge.

The process of creating clear, insightful visual reports can often feel repetitive, especially when you're manually creating charts in different tools. At Graphed, we’ve made it our mission to automate away this friction. Instead of building charts click by click, you can just ask in plain English, "Show me a line chart of Shopify revenue vs. Facebook Ads spend for this quarter," and get an interactive, real-time dashboard instantly. Because the dashboards are already built for clarity and everyone can see the live data, insights become immediately accessible without the hours of manual work. You can explore a new way of creating reports with Graphed.