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ScottWilson-8c0's avatar
ScottWilson-8c0
Community Member
9 days ago

Creating alt text for complex images easier

Hey folks,

I'm really glad to see this new accessibility Group on E-Learning heroes. Right now in my own line of work, I'm pushing for really accessible courses and it's quite crazy how trainers are missing fundamental things such as alternative text on images. Which I would end up having to do to ensure a project gets done in time.

Anyway, I made a video tutorial very recently on how you can speed up creating alternative text for graphics using Microsoft Copilot. It can also be done with other tools such as ChatGPT.

I hope it helps and more importantly, gets more people to make sure that all their graphics have alternative descriptions.

Enhancing Accessibility in Instructional Design with Microsoft Copilot

accessibility
alt text
Graphics
  • SamHill's avatar
    SamHill
    Super Hero
    8 days ago

    That is impressive how Copilot analyses the image to produce the ALT text. Great tip. I'll be passing this video on to my clients.

    I know this isn't really what the video is covering, but it's worth noting that for complex images, that do contain a lot of information, should use a long description. Using a long description allows you to include all of the information in the image as well as using semantic HTML, such as headings, bullet lists, table cells etc. where it will benefit the description.

    You can provide long descriptions a number of ways, depending on the tool you are building in. Some methods include:

    • A link to open a layer in Storyline 360 containing the transcript of the image.
    • A link to an external document such as Word, HTML, Text

    Also, I know there are different schools of thought on this, but the predominant feedback I have had is to not add ALT text values to decorative images, or images that do not provide any important context or information to the content within the module, for example "Child eats apple" doesn't really add to the information I've read on healthy eating, but the image of a child eating an apple looks nice alongside the content.

    • ScottWilson-8c0's avatar
      ScottWilson-8c0
      Community Member
      7 days ago

      Hey Sam,

      Thanks very much for adding that! I 100% agree as well. There are lots of times when you just can't find a short alternative text so having it somewhere else accessible is a good idea. And yes, 100% agree about decorative images. I sometimes have trouble with staff marking everything as a decorative image which isn't ideal.

      Thanks again.

  • LeslieMcKerchie's avatar
    LeslieMcKerchie
    Staff
    9 days ago

    Very nice, Scott! Thanks for sharing with everyone. I appreciate how you detailed your iterative process in the video.

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