How to add VoiceOver Image Descriptions in the Preview app in macOS Monterey

The Preview app in macOS Monterey now facilitates adding image descriptions. For some people, it might be difficult to find the option to add these. That’s where this post comes in.

Accessibility is a human right. Everyone, regardless of disabilities, is entitled to use technology as everyone else. Apple’s accessibility-aiding tools in its devices including the Mac, iPhone, and iPad have proven to be quite useful over time. The company, like most major companies at the forefront of technology, seems to care about accessibility.

Furthering that notion is the Image Descriptions feature in the Preview app on macOS Monterey. It lets you describe images downloaded to your Mac and accessible through Desktop or the macOS Finder.

Table Of Contents

Why adding image descriptions helps
How to add VoiceOver image descriptions in the Preview app in macOS Monterey
Other macOS Monterey Guides you should check out:

Why adding image descriptions helps

Image descriptions have been the obscure lifeblood of software for a long time. Google’s search engine, for one, requires websites like ours to add “alt tags”—otherwise known as image descriptions—to images. This ensures that visually disabled people can use text-to-speech programs to understand the contents of the image.

It’s so important that Google prefers websites that have descriptions accompanying images over websites that don’t, which is ultimately reflected in Google’s search engine rankings.

Adding image descriptions in the Preview app on your Mac, on the other hand, helps disabled users use voiceover to learn about the contents of the image right from the Finder.