I’ve just shipped v1.1.0 of the Power BI Alt Text UDF Library, and this update brings a big expansion: a brand‑new family of six accessibility‑focused DAX UDFs designed to describe common KPI visual patterns with clean, structured, screen‑reader‑friendly narratives.
This update was inspired by the brilliant work shared by Alena Shkel, whose SVG‑based KPI patterns show just how far you can push native Power BI without custom visuals. Her post sparked the idea to bring structured, parameter‑driven alt text to the same set of patterns, but in a generic, visual‑agnostic way. If you haven’t checked her LinkedIn post yet, make sure you do, clicking here.
What’s new
This release introduces AltText_VisualPatterns, a set of parameter‑driven UDFs that generate alt text for visuals such as progress bars, bullet/target charts, trend sparklines, ratings, status indicators, and variance chips. Like AltText_LineChart, these functions:
- take only parameters (context + values)
- avoid referencing internal model objects
- avoid naming chart types or colours
- follow accessible alt text best practices
Included updates
- Added AltText_VisualPatterns.dax containing six new UDFs: ProgressBarAltText, BulletChartAltText, SparkBarsAltText, RatingDotsAltText, StatusPillAltText, VarianceChipAltText
- Added AltText_VisualPatterns_Demo.dax with placeholder measures and example calls
- Updated README with a full VisualPatterns section, example outputs, and guidance for creating true DAX UDFs using FUNCTION syntax in DAX Query View or TMDL
Functional changes
This release adds new functions only, no changes were made to existing UDFs: AltText_Context, AltText_ChangeNarrative, and AltText_LineChart remain unchanged.
The full release is available at GitHub repository Power BI Alt Text UDF Library
