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Beyond the Alt-Attribute: Navigating Complex Images, Media, and Assessments for Universal Access

taught by: Christine Foushi
co-presented by: Darrin Evans

Session Summary

Digital accessibility is often reduced to "adding alt text," but complex content—like interactive assessments, data-heavy infographics, and dynamic media—requires a more strategic approach. This 75-minute session will help determine when a simple text description suffices and when it’s time to pivot to an alternative format. Drawing on the POOR principles (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust), we will explore authoring techniques for interactive simulations and conduct hands-on evaluations of complex media. Crucially, we will showcase and explore the latest tools for generating quality alt text and structured long descriptions, evaluating where automation helps and where human intervention is mandatory.

Description

As digital learning and communication become more interactive, the gap between simple images and complex functional content continues to widen. This session bridges that gap by combining three critical pillars of digital inclusion: effective alternative text, accessible media, and inclusive assessments.

We begin by redefining the "what, when, and why" of alternative text, moving past basic descriptions to strategic textual strategies. Participants will then apply the POUR accessibility foundation to digital assessments, learning how to remediate non-standard items like "drag-and-drop" or interactive simulations. Throughout the session, we will explore a toolkit of modern resources—ranging from AI-assisted description generators to long-description templating tools—to streamline the creation of high-quality alternatives. Finally, we move into the realm of complex media, where we will conduct a hands-on evaluation using screen readers and keyboard-only navigation to identify and rectify WCAG conformance issues. Attendees will leave with a decision-making framework and a curated "tool-belt" for choosing between alt text, long descriptions, and entirely alternative formats.

Practical Skills

  • Differentiate between simple, functional, and complex imagery to determine whether to use concise alt text, expanded long descriptions, or a separate accessible data format.
  • Execute a high-level evaluation of interactive media using keyboard-only navigation and screen-reader testing to identify gaps in programmatic structure.
  • Identify and utilize specialized tools for authoring alt text and long descriptions, understanding the ethical and practical limitations of automated vs. manual generation.