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Re: Alt text for the sciences

for

From: Emily Ogle
Date: Jun 11, 2018 1:58PM

Realizing in reviewing my email that I should likely provide more context:

I used to work at Elsevier and I was part of the alt text pilot team where everyone added alt text to images in a physical anatomy terminology book. This was really quite complex alt text, as the images themselves were meant to be teaching, so it was a matter of balancing description and length.

Ted Gies was a part of that team and heads up Elsevier's accessibility efforts. He could provide some examples of complex yet succinct alt text, including ultrasounds, diagrams, etc. <EMAIL REMOVED> .

Emily

> On Jun 11, 2018, at 2:14 PM, L Snider < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
> 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
>>> >>> >>> >>> >> >> >> >> >>
> > > >