{"id":5314,"date":"2024-10-22T10:42:03","date_gmt":"2024-10-22T14:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/?p=5314"},"modified":"2024-10-09T09:42:32","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T13:42:32","slug":"simple-tips-for-getting-in-the-habit-of-creating-accessible-content-from-the-start-part-2-images-and-visual-content-styling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/simple-tips-for-getting-in-the-habit-of-creating-accessible-content-from-the-start-part-2-images-and-visual-content-styling\/","title":{"rendered":"Simple Tips for Getting in the Habit of Creating Accessible Content from the Start, Part 2: Images and Visual Content Styling"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the previous post in this series, Simple Tips for Getting in the Habit of Creating Accessible Content from the Start, Part 1: Text-Based Content<\/a>, I discussed some tips on small changes you can make in the way that you create text-based content so that it is more accessible from the start. This was inspired by the main idea in <\/span>Atomic Habits<\/span><\/i> by James Clear: changes that are very small but applied consistently can make a big difference over time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We have a lot of resources on accessibility at Emerson<\/a>,<\/span>\u00a0and I encourage you to check them out. Our resources cover accessibility concerns for specific software, like Canvas and Panopto, but there are also principles that are applicable across the board. In this blog post, I\u2019ll be covering tips for images and visual content? What does \u201cvisual content styling\u201d mean, if not images? Read on to find out!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are three tips for shifting how you work with images and visual content styling so that it\u2019s more accessibility-friendly from the start:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tip 1: Provide Alt Text for Images<\/span><\/h2>\n

Screen readers don\u2019t have the ability to describe an image on their own, so it\u2019s important to add alt text for any images that you use. Screen readers can read the alt text, and the alt text communicates the description and significance of images. A screen reader will just skip over an image that doesn\u2019t have alt text, and the screen reader user will not have a way of knowing what the image is or its significance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The image below is a screenshot of the image options interface in Canvas, which shows the alt text field. In this case, I added alt text to the image when I uploaded the image. And yes, this screenshot has alt text!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The interface for adding alt text varies according to the application you are using, but this is such an important aspect of accessibility that there should always be a way to add alt text regardless of the application. Here are instructions on adding alt text in some commonly used applications at Emerson:<\/span><\/p>\n