WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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Re: Writing good ALT descriptions

for

From: Mike Osborne - AccEase
Date: Jul 22, 2009 4:35PM

A workshop exercise we do is to provide a two sets of images A & B to 2
groups and get them to write alt text for each image. Then we get them to
pair up and read the alt text and describe the image from the alt text to
the author and ultimately to view the images. Very revealing and a great way
to show that writing good alt text is much harder than it seems.

Regards
Mike Osborne

AccEase Ltd
p. 04 934 2821
m. 021 675 010
e. <EMAIL REMOVED>
w. www.AccEase.com

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of ejp10
Sent: Thursday, 23 July 2009 8:16 a.m.
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Writing good ALT descriptions

I think the sites given are good recommendations, but a good quick &
dirty tip I heard is to imagine you are reading the document over the
phone. I think it helps me understand functional vs aesthetic
information in a graphic.

For example if I see a university logo in a header, I figure I would
read the name of the university over the phone, but not describe the
details of the logo.

My two cents

Elizabeth

On Jul 22, 2009, at 2:00 PM, <EMAIL REMOVED> wrote:

>
> From: "John E. Brandt" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> Date: July 21, 2009 2:25:07 PM EDT
> To: "'WebAIM Discussion List'" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> Subject: [WebAIM] Writing good ALT descriptions
> Reply-To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
>
>
> I am looking for a good resource to point people to who have
> questions about
> writing good ALT descriptions. I could write one myself - well it
> would be
> my opinion and not necessarily "good" in the eyes of everyone - but
> I would
> rather have something that has been out there for a while, is
> mainstream and
> generally well respected. It does not have to be long - in fact, I
> would
> prefer something brief - and it should be fairly easy to understand.
>
>
>
> Any suggestions or nominees?
>

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-Elizabeth J. Pyatt, Ph.D.
Instructional Designer
Education Technology Services, TLT/ITS
Penn State University
<EMAIL REMOVED> , (814) 865-0805 or (814) 865-2030 (Main Office)

210 Rider Building (formerly Rider II)
227 W. Beaver Avenue
State College, PA 16801-4819
http://www.personal.psu.edu/ejp10/psu
http://tlt.psu.edu