How to Read Images and Alt Text in Microsoft Immersive Reader
Question details
The user wants to know if Immersive Reader can display images or read their alternative (alt) text, and how to work around its current limitations.
- Product
- Immersive Reader
- Device & OS
- not provided
- Scenario
- Attempting to use accessibility tools to read a document containing images with alt text.
- Observed behavior
- Immersive Reader provides natural-sounding voices for standard text but fails to display image content or read the associated alternative text.
Ensure that the document containing your images is saved locally on your device so that you can easily copy the images or run text-extraction tools on them.
Extract Text from Images Using OCR Tools
Since Immersive Reader cannot process images natively, you can use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to convert the text inside images into standard, readable text.
By converting an image into text first, you bypass the limitation of Immersive Reader and allow it to read the image's contents as if it were a normal paragraph.
Right-click the image in your original document and select 'Save as Picture' to save it locally to your computer.
Launch an OCR application (such as WPS Office's Picture to Text feature, Microsoft OneNote, or an online OCR converter) and upload your saved image.
Run the OCR extraction process and copy the generated text from the tool.
Paste the extracted text into a new Word document, navigate to the 'View' tab, and click 'Immersive Reader' to listen to the text aloud.
Manually Replace Images with Descriptive Text Captions
If you rely on alt text for accessibility, you can manually insert the alt text directly into the document body so Immersive Reader can process it.
Extract and Read Image Text with WPS Office
WPS Office offers a built-in OCR feature that easily extracts text from images, along with a powerful read-aloud function to listen to your documents without needing complex workarounds.
- 1. Open your document: Launch WPS Office and open the document containing the images you want to read.
- 2. Access the OCR tool: Navigate to the 'Tools' tab and click on the 'Picture to Text' (OCR) button.
- 3. Extract the text: Select the target image to extract its text content and insert it directly into the document page as editable text.
- 4. Read the text aloud: Go to the 'Review' tab and click 'Read' to have the extracted text read aloud using the built-in text-to-speech engine.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Immersive Reader hide images in my Word document?
Immersive Reader is specifically designed to reduce visual distractions and help users focus entirely on the text formatting. Because of this, it strips out images, complex layouts, and other non-text elements by default.
Is there a way to make Microsoft Word read alt text aloud natively?
Yes, the standard 'Read Aloud' feature in Microsoft Word (found under the Review tab) can sometimes read alt text when the image itself is selected, but the dedicated Immersive Reader mode currently ignores images entirely.
Will Microsoft add image support to Immersive Reader in the future?
Microsoft continually updates its accessibility tools based on user input. While image and alt text display is not currently supported, many users have submitted this request through the Microsoft Feedback portal, making it a highly requested future feature.
