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Image description bootcamp in 2 parts: PART 2 – Hands-on Practice: Why THIS image HERE? Writing education-focused alt text (and beyond) for equitable learning

Handouts

Scheduled at 1:30pm in Penrose 2 on Tuesday, November 17.

#43518

Speaker(s)

  • Laura Ciporen, Digital Content Accessibility Manager, McGraw Hill Education

Session Details

  • Length of Session: 5-6-hr
  • Format: Lab
  • Expertise Level: Beginner
  • Type of session: Pre-conference

Summary

Part 2: Cement your confidence and understanding with practice. (For attendees of Part 1 or previous Why This Image Here? sessions only.) Bring your writing materials to Part 2 of this bootcamp to become confident in applying the technique presented in Part 1. The technique and mindset are simple to remember but require practice to master. Get in the groove by working through and analyzing examples together. Be ready to spend real time writing descriptions and revising them based on feedback.

Abstract

Prerequisite for Part 2 of this bootcamp is most preferably Part 1, however, attendees of past "Why this image here?" talks or workshops who would like extra practice in the technique are also welcome to attend. Part 2 of the bootcamp will be spent getting familiar with the thought process and special considerations for educational materials by working our way through numerous examples. Theory is the start, but practice is essential for cementing true understanding. Some examples of types of images include icons, graphs, screenshots in how-to documents, and more. We will discuss why some images that may appear decorative aren't and how to tell if an image needs a long description in addition to its alt text. We will broach the topic of describing people's appearance (its benefits and pitfalls). The result will not only be finely crafted descriptions for the images we worked on, but a confident ability to describe just about anything. Share your tricky images ahead of time and we can work through them in the bootcamp. Google form: https://forms.gle/LDtpMiejNJPaw61V8

Keypoints

  1. Even if you didn't choose an image and aren't a SME you can still write a meaningful description.
  2. Asking "why is this here?" is a powerful tool, but using it correctly takes some practice.
  3. Organizing the information in image descriptions, and doing so consistently, is essential.

Disability Areas

Cognitive/Learning, Vision

Topic Areas

Other, Uncategorized

Speaker Bio(s)

Laura Ciporen

IAAP CPACC. Creating inclusive content (with WCAG-based accessibility) for higher education since 2015.

Handout(s)

Do you want all your learners to benefit from the rich information contained in your content's images but suspect that screen reader users are missing out? Unsure how to create meaningful and useful descriptions worthy of your learning materials? Come to this bootcamp to learn, practice, and become confident in applying an education-focused technique for writing meaningful image descriptions. We'll start with the thought process then work through examples from graphs to laughing children.