When I started writing in 2018, I didn't include alt text. Over the years, over 500 un-alt'ed images piled up. These (mostly) aren't simple images of geese or sunsets. Most of my images are technical, from graphs of experimental results to hand-drawn AI alignment comics. Describing these assets was a major slog, so I turned to automation.

To implement accessibility best practices, I needed alt text that didn't describe the image so much as communicate the information the image is supposed to communicate. None of the scattershot AI projects I found met the bar, so I wrote my own package.

alt-text-llm is an AI-powered tool for generating and managing alt text in markdown files. Originally developed for my personal website, alt-text-llm streamlines the process of making web content accessible. The package detects assets missing alt text, suggests context-aware descriptions, and provides an interactive reviewing interface in the terminal.

In the end, I got the job done for about $12.50 using Gemini 2.5 Pro. My alt-text-llm addressed hundreds and hundreds of alt-less images: detecting them; describing them; reviewing them; and lastly applying my finalized alts to the original Markdown files. turntrout.com is now friendlier to the millions of people who browse the web with the help of screen readers.

If you want to improve accessibility for your content, go ahead and check out my repository!