about textBOX

I'm Huw Alexander and I describe images for a living.

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I founded textBOX in 2018 to solve one problem: alt text quality in the publishing industry.

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My background in academic publishing and accessible content provision had shown me what blind and low vision readers were dealing with. Alt text marked as “Photograph” or “Figure 1” is silence. I started researching, testing, listening to users, and developing a methodology that would become focus|LOCUS.

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Now, textBOX is an alt text consultancy working with publishers, universities, and organisations around the world. I've written millions of words describing tens of thousands of images — from statistics textbooks to illustrated children's books, architectural photography to scientific diagrams. Clients have included Microsoft, WIPO, Getty, Canongate, the American Psychological Association, Pearson, and Pottermore.

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I'm part of the accessible publishing community — speaking and writing on image description, and a member of the PAAG working group. textBOX is also the home of the ASPIRE accessibility statement project and the searchBOX accessibility directory.

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I'm still guided by a simple principle: access gets you in the room; inclusion lets you join the conversation. Good image description isn't just about compliance. It's about making sure everyone can participate — in the lecture, the discussion, the joke, the story. That's what good alt text does. textBOX can help you do it too.

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