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Re: Alt text for the sciences

for

From: L Snider
Date: Jun 11, 2018 1:14PM

Hi Rachel,

Try these to start for art and art history:

- http://www.museumsandtheweb.com/mw2001/papers/anable/anable.html
- http://www.artbeyondsight.org/handbook/acs-onlinetraining.shtml
- https://studio.carnegiemuseums.org/museums-and-the-web-2016-
accessibility-d421c75e0788 (small part of this article)

There are other articles, but these were the ones that came to mind quickly.

It is an interesting topic, because alt text is never really simple and I
have found that subject terms in this area (art, art history, photo
history, archives, etc.) can be problematic. Do you describe what is there?
Context? Artist intent? Objects and colours and what they mean? How far
down the rabbit hole does that send one?

I recently gave a three hour seminar on subject terms and taxonomies. While
it didn't cover alt text, it did cover description and boy are there many
issues to consider in terms of language, tone, etc. and in my personal
view, all would apply to alt text as well.

In the end, in my opinion, it is usually (but not always) very tough to
make short descriptive alt text for this subject matter that covers more
than just the title, creator, etc. and that is where the text on the page
comes in. This doesn't always apply of course, but in my experience it has
been this way...

Cheers

Lisa


On Fri, Jun 8, 2018 at 11:02 AM, Thompson, Rachel < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
wrote:

> We would love to see this too! I'm also looking for good examples for art
> and art history. Thoughts?
>
> Dr. Rachel S. Thompson
> Director, Faculty Resource Center
> Office of Information Technology
> University of Alabama
>
> > On Jun 8, 2018, at 10:22 AM, Sarah Ferguson < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> >
> > Does anyone have some well-written alt text (or long descriptions) for
> > science diagrams (or other STEM illustrations)? I would like to share
> > quality examples with our science faculty, but I'm struggling to find
> > anything.
> >
> >
> > Sarah
> > > > > > > > > > > > >