How do you write GOOD alt text? How much explanation is enough? What details should you...

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How do you write GOOD alt text? How much explanation is enough? What details should you highlight or leave out? I'm always on the lookout for articles that inspire and help me to better coach instructors on answering these questions for the demonstrative images they use in their courses. Recently in my readings, I came across Writing great alt text: Emotion matters from a developer's point of view.

 

Key points from this article that I found helpful are:

• Context matters: As Jake Archibald so clearly puts it: "You could fill pages describing every detail, but does every detail 'matter'? It really depends on why this particular image is used."
• Emotion matters: If you're trying to use an image to set the tone of a page, make sure that's expressed in the alt text to help set the mood. For example, on an instructor introduction page, you might be using the image -- and its alt text -- to let your learners know that you're professional, approachable, fun, etc.
• What's important and relevant is your choice: Archibald also approaches some heavier topics such as how one should decide whether personal attributes such as skin colour should be mentioned. I would argue that this also extends to applying this thought process to whether a physical or ability attribute should be mentioned.

 

The takeaway from this article is that instructors who are putting their learning materials online should try to create their own alt text rather than depending on machine-generated text. We're doing our best to try to help our learners. And like a good essay, we can always make iterative improvements based on feedback!

 

Did you learn something new from this article? What have you been reading lately that's helped you make a difference to your learners' experience?

Stefanie.B.518

I love this post @Amber West​ !

That auto-generated alternative text certainly can't be relied upon to capture the context of the course and lesson, as well as the subtle cues conveyed by a particular image choice.

 

A few months ago we partnered with our Accessibility Team to create a new offering in the Brightspace Learning Center called 3 Keys to More Accessible Written Communications.

 

Each lesson is roughly 3 minutes, and you get to hear (or read via transcript) what a screen reader says when an alt text is encountered, and in other situations too!

 

Recently, I met with an Educator who's doing some really interesting things to offer alternative text to all learners. It struck me that this was such a rich way to employ a Universal Design for Learning principles (Providing Multiple Means of Representation) in the creation of learning material.

 

Can't wait to see the recommendations and comments from others too!