Design
To Try: Text Alternatives
Images, audio and video enriches the delivery of course materials by engaging the theatre of the mind. But video without the audio track, a guest lecture given by an international expert with an unfamiliar accent, or a pixelated image with insufficient detail are examples of how rich media can also act as a hindrance.
Think about what a students would get out of your multimedia resource if they were not able to hear the audio portion, or if they had difficulty understanding your spoken word. A text transcript provides students with equivalent information to the audio content in a multimedia resource. Providing content that is accessible is critical to keeping students with data expenses still connected.
Audio
While audio is a rich medium that brings many advantages to the classroom, audio based resources pose particular challenges for those with a hearing disability. It is therefore important to include a text transcript to provide students with equivalent information to the audio content. If you use video with an audio track, it is advisable to add captions to the video to offer a visual alternative.
Images
If images are used, ALT (alternative) text or descriptive text needs to be provided. If images are used, ALT (alternative) text or descriptive text needs to be provided. Alt text is not immediately visible as it is written within the HTML code.
Alt text is designed to provide text explanations of images for students who are unable to see them:
- Visually impaired students using screen readers will be able to read an Alt attribute to better understand an on-page image.
- If an image cannot load, the Alt text will be displayed in place of the image.
To provide good Alt tags, remember to describe the image as specifically as possible. Keep to the following rules:
- Keep it (relatively) short, within 125 characters so that the screen readers do not cut off some of the Alt text.
- Don’t include “image of,” “picture of,” etc. in your Alt text.
- Do not provide a description to an image used for decorative purposes.
Sometimes, alternative text is enough. If a complex photograph, chart, or diagram is displayed, it might be necessary to include more descriptive text. This can be done in the text surrounding the image, or in the long description (longdesc) HTML attribute.
Video.
It is more time consuming to provide text alternatives to video. But not all of the speech content should be included in the transcript. Here are some exceptions:
- If there is speech that is not relevant, it is usually best to indicate that it has been excluded from the transcript. For example: “[A & B chatted while slides were loading].”
- Don’t be a slave to the video and include headings and sub-headings, especially when the transcript is long. When including these, put them in brackets to show that they were not part of the original audio. For example: [Introduction]; [Group Discussion]; [Case Study].
- Descriptions that convey emotions, mood, etc. are usually provided in brackets. For example: “Don’t touch that! [shouted].”
- Descriptions of relevant non-speech audio: These are usually provided in brackets. For example: “[metal pipes crashing to concrete floor].” Background noise that isn’t relevant can be left out.
The work you put into creating a text transcript for a video resource can be repurposed to provide the captions.