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Thread: MS Word Alt Description - is this new?
Number of posts in this thread: 14 (In chronological order)
From: John E. Brandt
Date: Wed, Oct 04 2017 8:35AM
Subject: MS Word Alt Description - is this new?
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I was just preparing some training documents for a presentation on
accessible PDFs. Using the latest version of MS Word in MSO365, I noticed
that when I added an image/picture there was a space superimposed on the
image showing a "suggested Alt description." When I clicked on it, it
brought up a dialog box that says: "How would you describe this picture and
its contents to someone who is blind? (1 - 2 sentences recommended). Then it
gives that recommended Alt description (not very sophisticated, I might add)
which you can edit.
I've posted the screenshots in the following links.
https://jebswebs.net/blog/2017/10/microsoft-adds-automatic-alt-description-t
o-ms-word/
This is new to me. When did Microsoft start doing this?
I suspect it is associated with MSO365 and is using some AI from the Cloud.
Will investigate further to see if it is in the Mac version and other MSO
apps.
~j
John E. Brandt
jebswebs.com
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = <mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
jebswebs.com <http://www.jebswebs.com>;
From: JP Jamous
Date: Wed, Oct 04 2017 9:20AM
Subject: Re: MS Word Alt Description - is this new?
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No it is not new. It has always been under "FormatAlt". The only difference is that in the latest version of Word, they made it visible to users who do not know about a11y.
It is also found in PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook.
From: John E. Brandt
Date: Wed, Oct 04 2017 11:33AM
Subject: Re: MS Word Alt Description - is this new?
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Thank you for your response JP
Yes, the ability to add ALT description has been around for many years, but the "intelligent service" and superimposed a suggested ALT is clearly very new.
Getting people to add the useful Alt Description is still the challenge.
John E. Brandt
jebswebs.com
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
jebswebs.com
From: Lucy Greco
Date: Wed, Oct 04 2017 11:37AM
Subject: Re: MS Word Alt Description - is this new?
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i disagree the auto part of the process is new its been in the insiders for
about 4 months now and i have been dieing to try it. yes you were always
able to add the alt text but the AI part is brand new and i reely want to
know how good it is. Ms tells me that if you change the text they give you
the system lerns and the recognishion will get better over time i asked
if this would be in only the 365 and they said the plan is to have it in
all products in time please let us know how good the auto discription is i
am diing to try it
Lucia Greco
Web Accessibility Evangelist
IST - Architecture, Platforms, and Integration
University of California, Berkeley
(510) 289-6008 skype: lucia1-greco
http://webaccess.berkeley.edu
Follow me on twitter @accessaces
On Wed, Oct 4, 2017 at 8:20 AM, JP Jamous < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> No it is not new. It has always been under "FormatAlt". The only
> difference is that in the latest version of Word, they made it visible to
> users who do not know about a11y.
>
> It is also found in PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook.
>
>
From: JP Jamous
Date: Wed, Oct 04 2017 12:22PM
Subject: Re: MS Word Alt Description - is this new?
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You also need to be aware that adding alt to an image in Word is not always a guarantee that screen readers will announce it.
I experienced that many times in the past. I always recommend that the document is validated using a screen reader.
From: Chagnon | PubCom
Date: Wed, Oct 04 2017 12:25PM
Subject: Re: MS Word Alt Description - is this new?
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Reviews say the AI Alt-Text is very mediocre. Yes, it'll be getter over time, but this is one area that will be difficult to automate with AI...still a need for humans who can interpret the key visual message and information contained in a graphic and convey it to someone using A.T.
On the plus side, it at least prompts the author to add Alt-text or automatically puts at least something for the Alt-text. Wondering if something is better than nothing!
Confirming that I too heard that it will be rolled out to conventional licenses later, but is only in the cloud-based subscription 365 version at this time.
--Bevi Chagnon
From: JP Jamous
Date: Wed, Oct 04 2017 12:27PM
Subject: Re: MS Word Alt Description - is this new?
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Easy girl! You mean this is an AI feature that links to the Microsoft cloud?
I have not been a big fan of the Microsoft cloud. I use 2016 365, but I try to keep it from connecting fully to the cloud.
What are the other products that it will be included in? Is VS.NET one of them?
From: Lucy Greco
Date: Wed, Oct 04 2017 12:30PM
Subject: Re: MS Word Alt Description - is this new?
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yes its useing the same back end that the seeing ai app is using and that
one is pritty inpressive
Lucia Greco
Web Accessibility Evangelist
IST - Architecture, Platforms, and Integration
University of California, Berkeley
(510) 289-6008 skype: lucia1-greco
http://webaccess.berkeley.edu
Follow me on twitter @accessaces
On Wed, Oct 4, 2017 at 11:27 AM, JP Jamous < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Easy girl! You mean this is an AI feature that links to the Microsoft
> cloud?
>
> I have not been a big fan of the Microsoft cloud. I use 2016 365, but I
> try to keep it from connecting fully to the cloud.
>
> What are the other products that it will be included in? Is VS.NET one of
> them?
>
>
From: Don Mauck
Date: Wed, Oct 04 2017 12:36PM
Subject: Re: MS Word Alt Description - is this new?
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Hi Lucy, does all this happen from the Insert menu?
I'm not running Office365, I am using the latest 2016 version, this sure sounds interesting though!
From: Don Mauck
Date: Wed, Oct 04 2017 12:39PM
Subject: Re: MS Word Alt Description - is this new?
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Hi Bevi, I posted a question that I see you answered. Just to confirm, this is only available using 365 since that uses the cloud.
From: Lucy Greco
Date: Wed, Oct 04 2017 12:52PM
Subject: Re: MS Word Alt Description - is this new?
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Once again I have not been able to use it myself but from what I understand
the system automatically detects that you have inserted a graphic and
provides a label for it and provides you the opportunity to correct that
label from what I understand it indicates that there is text there for you
to check but I'm not sure how trying to get myself a 365 license so I can
test it and play with it and let people know more
On Oct 4, 2017 11:37 AM, "Don Mauck" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Hi Lucy, does all this happen from the Insert menu?
> I'm not running Office365, I am using the latest 2016 version, this sure
> sounds interesting though!
>
>
From: info
Date: Wed, Oct 04 2017 1:15PM
Subject: Re: MS Word Alt Description - is this new?
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If you want a bit more information on Intelligent Services, Auto generated Alt Text and a few new things coming, here is a link to my session at Microsoft Ignite:
https://myignite.microsoft.com/sessions/54668?source=sessions
In the Office 365 desktop apps, when you add an image you get a Pane to the right of the document with some positioning and cropping options, there is also a button to generate Alt Text if you have this setting turned off, but if you didn't turn it off, Alt text will be provided with the disclaimer that it is machine generated (until you edit it and remove that text).
Cheers, Karen
From: JP Jamous
Date: Wed, Oct 04 2017 1:37PM
Subject: Re: MS Word Alt Description - is this new?
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It sure is. I tested it on my iPhone and it does a pretty darn good job.
From: KellyFord
Date: Thu, Oct 05 2017 6:56AM
Subject: Re: MS Word Alt Description - is this new?
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You can try the image descriptions outside the Office apps or Seeing AI by uploading images directly to www.captionbot.ai. You'll get back the same basic descriptions. Office adds a confidence indication and text about the description being automatically generated. On the Caption Bot service, you can also rate the accuracy of the descriptions.
The service also powers image descriptions available in Insider builds of Windows 10 with Narrator and available in general when the Fall Creators Update comes out later this fall. See https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2017/06/21/announcing-windows-10-insider-preview-build-16226-pc/ for more details on how the service works with Narrator. Basically move Narrator focus to an image and press caps+shift+d.
Kelly