This article is the third in a series of six articles about accessibility issues in e-learning.

Adding images to text on your Blackboard site or in a document can be a good way to make it more visually appealing and to break up the long pieces of text.  It is worth noting that not everyone will be able to see the images that are included.  If the image is just for decoration than this is not so important, but where the image is essential for a learning activity or assessment, it is accessible practice to provide a text-based alternative.

Why is this an issue?

Some students, such as those with visual impairments, will not be able to fully engage with images (or see them at all), and may rely on software such as screen readers to understand the contents of a webpage.  Those screen readers need a textual description of that image so they can help users understand the image.

What can you do?

A yellow sea turtle (by alt text)

When you add an image to a webpage such as a Blackboard site, there is normally a space called ‘Alt-text’ where you can write alternative text that describes the image.  It is good practice to always use this space to describe what the image is or why it has been used.

Be sure to provide a level of description that helps the user understand what is in the image.  For instance, alt-text of ‘A man’ is not as descriptive as ‘A man wearing a red jumper running down the street after a blue car, waving his arms’.

Where actually seeing an image is critical, such as for an assessment, be sure to provide an alternative accessible assessment activity which disabled students will be able to participate in.