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Thread: Comics with alt text

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From: Abby Kingman
Date: Thu, Jan 24 2019 8:30AM
Subject: Comics with alt text
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Sort of a tangential question, I hope it's ok to post here...

We are starting to post a comic strip in our company newsletter that is
sent electronically, and also putting it in our twitter feed.
Fundamentally, it seems like the alt text for the comics just needs to tell
the story about what is happening in the panels. I'd like for the artist to
provide the alt text since he knows best what he is conveying. I thought it
might be helpful to provide him with examples of online comics that have
good alt text, but as I am not a comic reader I don't have anything to
refer to. Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated!

Side note - When I did a google search for "alt text for comics" a lot of
the results that came up were for posts that had poor information about how
to hide "easter eggs" or jokes in the alt text. These posts were more than
a few years old so hopefully the posters have moved on from that idea.

Cheers!

--
Abby Kingman
Last Call Media

From: Haim Roman
Date: Thu, Jan 24 2019 9:04AM
Subject: Re: Comics with alt text
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Are the comics just for entertainment? Or do they convey important
information or ideas?
How much do the comics rely on the visual aspect, and how much not?

If the comics are just for entertainment purposes, and rely heavily on the
visual aspect, then you might want to forgo ALT text.

If the comics rely rely heavily on the visual aspect, but convey important
info, writing acceptable ALT text might be very difficult. You might want
to convey that info a different way.
Howard (Haim) Roman -- = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = -- 052-8-592-599 -- חיים רומן
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haimroman



On Thu, Jan 24, 2019 at 5:31 PM Abby Kingman < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> Sort of a tangential question, I hope it's ok to post here...
>
> We are starting to post a comic strip in our company newsletter that is
> sent electronically, and also putting it in our twitter feed.
> Fundamentally, it seems like the alt text for the comics just needs to tell
> the story about what is happening in the panels. I'd like for the artist to
> provide the alt text since he knows best what he is conveying. I thought it
> might be helpful to provide him with examples of online comics that have
> good alt text, but as I am not a comic reader I don't have anything to
> refer to. Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated!
>
> Side note - When I did a google search for "alt text for comics" a lot of
> the results that came up were for posts that had poor information about how
> to hide "easter eggs" or jokes in the alt text. These posts were more than
> a few years old so hopefully the posters have moved on from that idea.
>
> Cheers!
>
> --
> Abby Kingman
> Last Call Media
> > > > >

From: L Snider
Date: Thu, Jan 24 2019 9:05AM
Subject: Re: Comics with alt text
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Haim brought up good points about the 'why' of the comic.

In my research comics are complex and there isn't agreement. Have you seen
this page?
https://www.lireo.com/accessible-comics-inclusive-design-24-2017/

I always liked the ComicsML concept, but it didn't go many places.

There is this page where you get one person's view of what they like:
https://veroniiiica.com/2018/11/29/how-to-write-alt-text-digital-comics/

Cheers

Lisa

On Thu, Jan 24, 2019 at 9:57 AM Haim Roman < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> Are the comics just for entertainment? Or do they convey important
> information or ideas?
> How much do the comics rely on the visual aspect, and how much not?
>
> If the comics are just for entertainment purposes, and rely heavily on the
> visual aspect, then you might want to forgo ALT text.
>
> If the comics rely rely heavily on the visual aspect, but convey important
> info, writing acceptable ALT text might be very difficult. You might want
> to convey that info a different way.
> > Howard (Haim) Roman -- = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = -- 052-8-592-599 -- חיים רומן
> LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haimroman
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 24, 2019 at 5:31 PM Abby Kingman < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
> wrote:
>
> > Sort of a tangential question, I hope it's ok to post here...
> >
> > We are starting to post a comic strip in our company newsletter that is
> > sent electronically, and also putting it in our twitter feed.
> > Fundamentally, it seems like the alt text for the comics just needs to
> tell
> > the story about what is happening in the panels. I'd like for the artist
> to
> > provide the alt text since he knows best what he is conveying. I thought
> it
> > might be helpful to provide him with examples of online comics that have
> > good alt text, but as I am not a comic reader I don't have anything to
> > refer to. Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated!
> >
> > Side note - When I did a google search for "alt text for comics" a lot of
> > the results that came up were for posts that had poor information about
> how
> > to hide "easter eggs" or jokes in the alt text. These posts were more
> than
> > a few years old so hopefully the posters have moved on from that idea.
> >
> > Cheers!
> >
> > --
> > Abby Kingman
> > Last Call Media
> > > > > > > > > >
> > > > >

From: Sandy Feldman
Date: Thu, Jan 24 2019 9:07AM
Subject: Re: Comics with alt text
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hey Abby,

I worked on a site for an artist that has some really interesting hidden
text describing the images. It's hidden instead of alt, since it's
pretty long.

https://arnielipsey.com/paintings.html

Hope that helps!

Sandy


On 2019-01-24 11:04 a.m., Haim Roman wrote:
> Are the comics just for entertainment? Or do they convey important
> information or ideas?
> How much do the comics rely on the visual aspect, and how much not?
>
> If the comics are just for entertainment purposes, and rely heavily on the
> visual aspect, then you might want to forgo ALT text.
>
> If the comics rely rely heavily on the visual aspect, but convey important
> info, writing acceptable ALT text might be very difficult. You might want
> to convey that info a different way.
> > Howard (Haim) Roman -- = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = -- 052-8-592-599 -- חיים רומן
> LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haimroman
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 24, 2019 at 5:31 PM Abby Kingman < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
>> Sort of a tangential question, I hope it's ok to post here...
>>
>> We are starting to post a comic strip in our company newsletter that is
>> sent electronically, and also putting it in our twitter feed.
>> Fundamentally, it seems like the alt text for the comics just needs to tell
>> the story about what is happening in the panels. I'd like for the artist to
>> provide the alt text since he knows best what he is conveying. I thought it
>> might be helpful to provide him with examples of online comics that have
>> good alt text, but as I am not a comic reader I don't have anything to
>> refer to. Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated!
>>
>> Side note - When I did a google search for "alt text for comics" a lot of
>> the results that came up were for posts that had poor information about how
>> to hide "easter eggs" or jokes in the alt text. These posts were more than
>> a few years old so hopefully the posters have moved on from that idea.
>>
>> Cheers!
>>
>> --
>> Abby Kingman
>> Last Call Media
>> >> >> >> >>
> > > > --
Sandy
sandyfeldman.com

From: Jim Allan
Date: Thu, Jan 24 2019 9:13AM
Subject: Re: Comics with alt text
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its old but very well done. From the BBC via Archive.org
https://web.archive.org/web/20110209154929/http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/play/vegetables/the-vegetables-ready-willing-and-able.shtml

On Thu, Jan 24, 2019 at 9:31 AM Abby Kingman < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> Sort of a tangential question, I hope it's ok to post here...
>
> We are starting to post a comic strip in our company newsletter that is
> sent electronically, and also putting it in our twitter feed.
> Fundamentally, it seems like the alt text for the comics just needs to tell
> the story about what is happening in the panels. I'd like for the artist to
> provide the alt text since he knows best what he is conveying. I thought it
> might be helpful to provide him with examples of online comics that have
> good alt text, but as I am not a comic reader I don't have anything to
> refer to. Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated!
>
> Side note - When I did a google search for "alt text for comics" a lot of
> the results that came up were for posts that had poor information about how
> to hide "easter eggs" or jokes in the alt text. These posts were more than
> a few years old so hopefully the posters have moved on from that idea.
>
> Cheers!
>
> --
> Abby Kingman
> Last Call Media
> > > > >


--
Jim Allan, Accessibility Coordinator
Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired
1100 W. 45th St., Austin, Texas 78756
voice 512.206.9315 fax: 512.206.9452 http://www.tsbvi.edu/
"We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." McLuhan, 1964

From: Gregg Nakamura
Date: Thu, Jan 24 2019 11:48AM
Subject: Re: Comics with alt text
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Abby,

While I don't have any first hand implementation experience with accessible
comics, I do remember this really good #ID24 talk called,
appropriately, "Accessible
Comics!!! <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsQcOV0dZew>" by Cordelia
McGee-Tubb. Cordelia discusses several techniques and provides code
examples as well.

Personally, I found this to be an eye-opening talk as it made me rethink
how I use alternate text in general now.

Hopefully this will be of some assistance to you.

Regards,
Gregg

On Thu, Jan 24, 2019 at 11:12 AM Jim Allan < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> its old but very well done. From the BBC via Archive.org
>
> https://web.archive.org/web/20110209154929/http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/play/vegetables/the-vegetables-ready-willing-and-able.shtml
>
> On Thu, Jan 24, 2019 at 9:31 AM Abby Kingman < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
> wrote:
>
> > Sort of a tangential question, I hope it's ok to post here...
> >
> > We are starting to post a comic strip in our company newsletter that is
> > sent electronically, and also putting it in our twitter feed.
> > Fundamentally, it seems like the alt text for the comics just needs to
> tell
> > the story about what is happening in the panels. I'd like for the artist
> to
> > provide the alt text since he knows best what he is conveying. I thought
> it
> > might be helpful to provide him with examples of online comics that have
> > good alt text, but as I am not a comic reader I don't have anything to
> > refer to. Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated!
> >
> > Side note - When I did a google search for "alt text for comics" a lot of
> > the results that came up were for posts that had poor information about
> how
> > to hide "easter eggs" or jokes in the alt text. These posts were more
> than
> > a few years old so hopefully the posters have moved on from that idea.
> >
> > Cheers!
> >
> > --
> > Abby Kingman
> > Last Call Media
> > > > > > > > > >
>
>
> --
> Jim Allan, Accessibility Coordinator
> Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired
> 1100 W. 45th St., Austin, Texas 78756
> voice 512.206.9315 fax: 512.206.9452 http://www.tsbvi.edu/
> "We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." McLuhan, 1964
> > > > >