Images and graphics make content more pleasant and easier to understand for many people, and in particular for those with cognitive and learning disabilities. They serve as cues that are used by people with visual impairments, including people with low vision, to orient themselves in the content." - As stated by the World Wide Web Consortiums' Web Accessibility Initiative
Accessible images are beneficial in many situations, such as:
Note: Removing images from websites (so-called “text-only versions”) make them less accessible and functional for these users and situations.
The type of information you provide in alternative text is based on the purpose of the image. Here are brief descriptions of various image types of images, along with links to more detailed tutorials on how to provide appropriate alternative text for each image type.
-- Information source: W3C/WAI – Images Concepts
Use the WAVE tool to check on the "alt text"
Still not exactly sure when and what type of information you should add in your alternative text? Use this "Alt Decision Tree" to help you decide.
https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/images/decision-treeDeveloped by The DIAGRAM Center (Digital Image And Graphic Resources for Accessible Materials), a Benetech Global Literacy initiative, the Poet Training Tool is a web based image description resource that helps people learn when and how to describe various types of images frequently found in educational books. Users of this tool have access to best practice guidelines and hands-on exercises that help cultivate skills for writing effective image descriptions for critical visual content. The Poet Training Tool is an open source project that has been developed for the community.
Learn WHEN to describe images:
Does every image and diagram require a description? Learn how to determine when and when NOT to provide supplemental descriptions.
Learn HOW to describe images:
Need tips on how to write effective, extended descriptions for your target audience? Read about general guidelines relevant to all images and best practice approaches for specific classes of images.
Want to take a stab at writing descriptions for particular images and diagrams using our interactive tools? Upload your own content and verify that you're on the track!
Now that you know how important alternative text is, the next step is learning how to add "alt text" when creating your OER. Adding "Alt-text" images is very easy and should be incorporated into your regular workflow for whenever you have images. Below are instructions on how to add "Alt-Text" to images on various platforms and programs.
By default, Canvas includes the image name as the alt text. This should be changed to something more descriptive when embedding images.
FYI: "Alt-text" is not the same as the "image title", which generates text when users hover over the image.
There are loads of spots where images can appear in your LibGuides - from thumbnail images in your database assets, to gallery box images, to resource icons in your link assets. Whenever adding images in LibGuides keep an eye out for the alternative text field when you're adding or editing an image anywhere in your LibGuides system.
FYI: To create an empty or null alt attribute, simply don't put anything in the alternative attribute field. Leave it completely blank.
Adding alt-text to an image in a Lumen item is exactly like adding alt-text in WordPress.
Once you have selected or uploaded an image, you will see a "Attachment Details" box. In this box you will see a thumbnail of the image and the following information fields:
-University of Wisconsin–Madison IT (Created 2020-09-30, Updated 2023-09-13) UW-Madison Knowledge Base - Pressbooks Accessibility and Usability Information https://kb.wisc.edu/106296
Pressbooks User Guide Copyright © 2024 by Pressbooks is licensed under a CC 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
Once you have selected or uploaded an image, you will see a "Attachment Details" box. In this box you will see a thumbnail of the image and the following information fields:
Unless otherwise noted, these accessibility guides were created by Accessibility Librarian Amy Wolfe for CUNY and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If you re-use, remix or link to this guide, it would be appreciated if you could notify the creator Accessibility Librarian Amy Wolfe.
