What Should E-Learning Designers Know About Alt Text? #429

Using Alt Text in E-Learning #429: Challenge | Recap

On the surface, writing alt text seems simple enough: Add text to on-screen images to verbally describe what's depicted in an image. Easy enough, right? 

But the more you learn about accessibility guidelines, the more you recognize potential challenges with "getting it right." For example, some terms and concepts that often confuse designers include:

• Functional vs. decorative images
• "Image of" or "Picture of"
• Captions vs. alt text
• Complex images
• Changing context of visuals
• Limited space

If you're like most course designers, you're on your own accessibility journey and learning incrementally. One of the best ways to learn something is to teach it to others. This holds true whether you have years of experience or you’re just getting started. Tom calls that a 5-minute expert, and that’s what this week’s challenge is all about.

Challenge of the Week

This week, your challenge is to share an instructional example to help course designers learn more about alt text.

Your example can be static or interactive. You can also consider combining this week’s challenge with an earlier challenge topic. I’ll update both recap posts with your entries this week. 

Here are some topics that would work for this week’s challenge:

• Creating Tabs Interactions in E-Learning #401: Challenge | Recap
• Microlearning in Rise 360 #407: Challenge | Recap
• Interactive Video in E-Learning #414: Challenge | Recap
• UsingGlossary Interactions in E-Learning #396: Challenge | Recap
• Interactive Audio in E-Learning #405: Challenge | Recap
• Using Accordion Interactions in E-Learning #403: Challenge | Recap

Upcoming Webinar

Want to learn more about alt text? Check out the webinar Ginger is hosting next week on how to write effective alt text for e-learning. I’ll see if I can also nudge Ginger to reference your examples and include them in her session's resources.

How To Write Alt Text for E-Learning

More Resources

• Storyline 360: Adding Alternate Text for Screen Readers
• Rise 360: How to Add Alternative Text to Images
• All About Accessibility

Share Your E-Learning Work

• Comments: Use the comments section below to link your published example and blog post.
• Forums: Start a new thread and share a link to your published example.
• Personal blog: If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We'll link to your posts so your great work gets even more exposure.
• Social media: If you share your demos on Twitter or LinkedIn, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can follow your e-learning coolness.

Last Week’s Challenge:

Before you share your tips on alt text, check out the creative ways course designers use cinemagraphs and looping videos in e-learning:

Cinemagraph & Looping Video Examples RECAP #428: Challenge | Recap

New to the E-Learning Challenges?

The weekly e-learning challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos.

Learn more about the challenges in this Q&A post and why and how to participate in this helpful article. 

Got an idea for a challenge? Are you interested in doing a webinar showcasing how you made one or more challenge demos? Or do you have some comments for your humble challenge host? Use this anonymous form to share your feedback:  https://bit.ly/ElearningChallengeForm.