Hi there Arboretum Folks! Hopping on for my first post ever and to pick your brains about adding alt text for social media graphics that are already text heavy. For context, I work in higher ed. and post a weekly calendar of arts events on campus.
My current tactic is typing the event info word for word into the alt text field. I’m not sure if this would be helpful or bothersome for someone using an assistive device like a screen reader. Any insight or suggestions? Cheers!
Question
Alt text for graphic heavy images
+3We have a similar issue as we share a lot of charts and graphs that can be completely overwhelming to have read out loud with a screenreader. What we usually do is share the most important takeaways and summarize where possible so it feels like a cohesive narrative instead of a giant list of numbers.
A calendar is a little more challenging (especially since I don’t know what’s on it), but would be curious if there is a way to simplify repeating events, or in the caption you could provide a link to a screen reader accessible version and have it clearly spelled out that folks should go there.
+13Hi
I have a chrome extension which acts like a screen reader that I’ll turn on when I want to test the experience. I’m curious what Alexa, Jessie, and Emily say for this because I’m still not sure if I love the chrome extension that I’m using.
Oh, I love the idea of linking to an accessible version--great thinking!
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+7rainer.carboni wrote:
Hi there Arboretum Folks! Hopping on for my first post ever and to pick your brains about adding alt text for social media graphics that are already text heavy. For context, I work in higher ed. and post a weekly calendar of arts events on campus.
My current tactic is typing the event info word for word into the alt text field. I’m not sure if this would be helpful or bothersome for someone using an assistive device like a screen reader. Any insight or suggestions? Cheers!
Is there anywhere on your school’s website that the events information could live? I’m more than a little ruthless when it comes to my college’s social media and refuse to post anything resembling a flyer due to accessibility. I prefer to link to a page where the information is available in an accessible format (like Kate suggested earlier).
You’re on the right track with adding all the event information from the calendar to the alt text for the graphic. Just keep in mind that while this will allow a screen reader user to hear all the information, I don’t believe they’ll able to copy/paste any of the information from the alt text field. This can hinder their experience because they’d need to listen to the alt text repeatedly if they’re trying to write/record any of the event info to refer to later.
This page on the Accessible Social website might be helpful to you, Rainer. And thank you for prioritizing accessibility!
Alexa Heinrich, @HashtagHeyAlexa
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