Alt Text and Captions on Facebook

Add Alt Text to Posts with Images

In the browser

Adding alt text to one image

1. Hover over the image and click the “Edit” button.
   
2. Click the “Alternative text” option.
3. Type your text in the “Custom alt text” box.
   
4. Click the “Save” button to continue editing your post.

Adding alt text to multiple images

The process is slightly different if you are uploading multiple images at once.

1. Hover over the images and select the “Edit all” button.
   
2. All of the images will appear in a single column with a text box underneath. Hover over an image to click the “Edit” button.
3. Click the “Alternative text” option and type your text in the “Custom alt text” box.
4. Click the “Save” button.
5. Follow steps 2 through 4 for each image.
6. Click the “Done” button to continue editing your post.

In the mobile app

1. Click the three-dot menu at the top right of an image.
   
2. Click the “Edit alt text” option.
   
3. Type your text in the “Write image alternative text” field.
   
4. Click the “Done” button to continue editing your post.

Adding Captions to a Video

In the browser

1. Hover over the image and click the “Edit” button.
   
2. Click the “Add Captions” option.
3. Upload the SRT file. Facebook requires that the file name includes “.en_US.srt” at the end if your file is in English or ".es_LA.srt" if your file is in general Spanish. Check Facebook's caption file naming convention for a full list of language and country codes.
   
4. Click the “Save” button to continue editing your post.

In the mobile app

On the app, Facebook automatically generates open captions. While closed captions have to be turned on in video settings, open captions are “burned” onto the video and cannot be turned off. This can help ensure a video is always accessible regardless of its default settings and allows viewers to watch videos with the volume off if they are in a public place. However, viewers cannot adjust it to fit their viewing preferences.

Open and closed captions are both perfectly acceptable ways to increase video accessibility. If given the option, it is generally best practice to use closed captions to allow user control. 

To add open captions in the app:

1. Click the “Edit” button on the video.
   
2. In the editor, click the “CC” icon at the top of the app. You might have to connect to a Wi-Fi network for the captions to generate automatically.
   
3. Once the video is transcribed automatically, you can change the style of the captions using the style settings.
   • For captions that can be easily read, choose a sans-serif font. This is a font that does not have tails on the letters, such as Arial or Helvetica. You can also add a dark background to the text by selecting the second button at the top.
   • This is also an opportunity to correct any spelling or word choice mistakes in the transcription by clicking the “Edit captions” button.
   
4. Click the “Done” button when the captions are ready. This will take you back to the main Facebook video editor.
5. In the main video editing screen, you can resize the captions by pinching to zoom and move them by dragging.
6. Click the “Done” button to save the video and return to the post editor.

Refer to Facebook’s Help Center for more information on adding caption files to a video.