Writing Alt Text and Practice
Pro-tip for poets: TextSniper and other OCR recognizing tools are amazing for folks who need to add alt text to images that are primarily text themselves (such as screenshots of poetry). These allow you to select an area on your screen and have it converted to text in your clipboard, which you can then paste into the alt text metadata box.
Note to self: Delve into this more and expand knowledge through learning about alt text as poetry
Alt Text: An informational graphic on a black background. The background also features details of white stars and dandelions. White and yellow text restates the event info already stated in this post. Included are two photos -- one of poet Ashley Cornelius, holding her book Translations from the Soul, and one of poet Nico Wilkinson, holding their book The Weeds Grow Anyway.
Resources
General Guidelines (from Section 508)
When writing alt text, follow these guidelines:
- Alt text should be short and to the point.
- Alt text should communicate the same information as the visual content.
- Alt text should refer to relevant content provided by the image, rather than simply describing how the image looks.
- Alt text should not contain any extra or unnecessary information, and should not repeat information that is already provided in the text.
- Alt text must be in the same language as the main content. For example, if you translate an English document into Spanish, you must also translate the alt text into Spanish.