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Thread: Today's Learning Moment

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Number of posts in this thread: 4 (In chronological order)

From: chagnon@pubcom.com
Date: Fri, Mar 29 2019 1:11PM
Subject: Today's Learning Moment
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As a professional designer, I'm on several forums for graphic design,
digital media, and accessibility.



A question came in from a student designer who asked how to make a flyer
accessible. The "flyer":

* Is a graphic made in Photoshop.
* Has all the contextual information in the graphic.
* Is essentially a large info-graphic.
* Was created for the campus' student assistance office/learning
resources center.
* Is intended to inform, specifically, students with disabilities.



Questions to my WebAIM colleagues:

1. How could this "flyer" be made fully accessible?
2. Would Alt-text on the entire graphic be sufficient?
3. Why wasn't the student designer trained in accessible design in the
degree program? (The college has a graphic design curriculum.)
4. Why would the student services office accept and distribute this
flyer?
5. How could our design schools teach students about accessibility and
inclusiveness?



I've placed a copy of the flyer on our website at:
https://www.pubcom.com/blog/2019_03-29/teachingmoment.shtml



* I'm not critiquing the visual design; personally, I think it's fine.
* The college and student's names are blurred. (I don't want to
embarrass a good school and a talented designer, but this project
demonstrates how we're failing to teach make the academic world fully
accessible.)
* And I've included a text transcription of what's in the graphic.



I have my own ideas of how to correct this flyer, but I'm interested in
yours because I'd like to build examples like this into my classes on
accessible design to teach designers how to build accessibility and
inclusion into their work.



Anxious to hear your thoughts.



-Bevi

- - -

Bevi Chagnon, founder/CEO | = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = <mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >

- - -

PubCom: Technologists for Accessible Design + Publishing

consulting . training . development . design . sec. 508 services

Upcoming classes at www.PubCom.com/ <http://www.pubcom.com/classes>; classes

- - -


<https://mailchi.mp/ff5bd323ea45/newsletter-accessibility-fonts-design-upcom
ing-classes-2901237> Latest blog-newsletter - Accessibility Tips at
www.PubCom.com/blog <http://www.PubCom.com/blog>;

From: Bim Egan
Date: Sat, Mar 30 2019 9:07AM
Subject: Re: Today's Learning Moment
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Just a few thoughts:
1. Could the image be converted to PDF format?
2. Is the information visually structured, i.e. has text that appears to be
headings and paragraphs?
2a If so, then the image should be turned into an artefact in the PDF, and
additional Tags created, representing the structure, each with an alt that
reproduces the text.
2b. If not and it just has text or images that convey information, then the
alt attribute of the image would be enough, as long as it's value is the
information being conveyed, not the visual aspect.
3. That's a good question that should be put to the College.

HTH,

Bim

-------------
Bim Egan
Skype phone: 01223 96 87 96
Personal Email: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Skype ID: bim.accessequals
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-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf
Of = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Sent: 29 March 2019 19:12
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List'
Subject: [WebAIM] Today's Learning Moment

As a professional designer, I'm on several forums for graphic design,
digital media, and accessibility.



A question came in from a student designer who asked how to make a flyer
accessible. The "flyer":

* Is a graphic made in Photoshop.
* Has all the contextual information in the graphic.
* Is essentially a large info-graphic.
* Was created for the campus' student assistance office/learning
resources center.
* Is intended to inform, specifically, students with disabilities.



Questions to my WebAIM colleagues:

1. How could this "flyer" be made fully accessible?
2. Would Alt-text on the entire graphic be sufficient?
3. Why wasn't the student designer trained in accessible design in the
degree program? (The college has a graphic design curriculum.)
4. Why would the student services office accept and distribute this
flyer?
5. How could our design schools teach students about accessibility and
inclusiveness?



I've placed a copy of the flyer on our website at:
https://www.pubcom.com/blog/2019_03-29/teachingmoment.shtml



* I'm not critiquing the visual design; personally, I think it's fine.
* The college and student's names are blurred. (I don't want to
embarrass a good school and a talented designer, but this project
demonstrates how we're failing to teach make the academic world fully
accessible.)
* And I've included a text transcription of what's in the graphic.



I have my own ideas of how to correct this flyer, but I'm interested in
yours because I'd like to build examples like this into my classes on
accessible design to teach designers how to build accessibility and
inclusion into their work.



Anxious to hear your thoughts.



-Bevi

- - -

Bevi Chagnon, founder/CEO | = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = <mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >

- - -

PubCom: Technologists for Accessible Design + Publishing

consulting . training . development . design . sec. 508 services

Upcoming classes at www.PubCom.com/ <http://www.pubcom.com/classes>; classes

- - -


<https://mailchi.mp/ff5bd323ea45/newsletter-accessibility-fonts-design-upcom
ing-classes-2901237> Latest blog-newsletter - Accessibility Tips at
www.PubCom.com/blog <http://www.PubCom.com/blog>;



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From: glen walker
Date: Sat, Mar 30 2019 11:01AM
Subject: Re: Today's Learning Moment
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Are you going to distribute the flyer in multiple formats? Paper printout,
pdf, html? My preference is to make it html because of the great support
already built in to browsers.

I would not use an alt text on the entire graphic because there's too much
information and alt text does not convey structure and cannot be navigated
word by word with a screen reader. I would create associated semantic
markup that mimics the layout of the graphic. Whether this markup is
visible on the screen is up to you.

"The Learning Resource Center offers disability support for eligible
students" would be an h1 because it's the whole point of the graphic.

"[College] is proud to be an inclusive community!" doesn't feel like a
heading. It's more of a statement.

"Services include" sounds like it's going to start a list so <ul> makes
sense.

The "such as" feels out of place, grammatically. The list of "such as"
items should probably be sub-lists under the "services includes" list.
That is, "academic accommodations" is the first bullet point and sub-points
under it should be "low distraction testing", "note taking", etc. "housing
accommodations" is the second bullet point and should have some sub-points.

"The LRC also offers assistive technology!" sounds like it should be a
third bullet point under "services include".

"Interested students should submit a request form & documentation" feels
like there should be a link to take you to the forms and doc.

The "learn more" at the end would be another list.

Glen

From: Pat Reynolds
Date: Mon, Apr 01 2019 3:09AM
Subject: Re: Today's Learning Moment
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I'd go back to basics: ask to see the communication plan that
specifies this leaflet (who, what, when, etc.). If they don't have a
plan, suggest they write one. Could well be that they don't need a
leaflet at all.

Best wishes,

Pat

On Sat, 30 Mar 2019 at 17:02, glen walker < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
> Are you going to distribute the flyer in multiple formats? Paper printout,
> pdf, html? My preference is to make it html because of the great support
> already built in to browsers.
>
> I would not use an alt text on the entire graphic because there's too much
> information and alt text does not convey structure and cannot be navigated
> word by word with a screen reader. I would create associated semantic
> markup that mimics the layout of the graphic. Whether this markup is
> visible on the screen is up to you.
>
> "The Learning Resource Center offers disability support for eligible
> students" would be an h1 because it's the whole point of the graphic.
>
> "[College] is proud to be an inclusive community!" doesn't feel like a
> heading. It's more of a statement.
>
> "Services include" sounds like it's going to start a list so <ul> makes
> sense.
>
> The "such as" feels out of place, grammatically. The list of "such as"
> items should probably be sub-lists under the "services includes" list.
> That is, "academic accommodations" is the first bullet point and sub-points
> under it should be "low distraction testing", "note taking", etc. "housing
> accommodations" is the second bullet point and should have some sub-points.
>
> "The LRC also offers assistive technology!" sounds like it should be a
> third bullet point under "services include".
>
> "Interested students should submit a request form & documentation" feels
> like there should be a link to take you to the forms and doc.
>
> The "learn more" at the end would be another list.
>
> Glen
> > > > --
- -
Dr Pat Reynolds
Executive Director
Free UK Genealogy
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Wales, number 1167484
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