Alt Text

Any and all images included in the course should be given clear and descriptive alternative text (often shortened to 'alt text'). This includes, but is certainly not limited to, pictures of the instructor in the My Instructor area, graphs or charts in Course Content, or infographics pulled from the web. The only exception to this would be purely decorative images which should be marked as decorative.

The descriptive text is provided in the case that the student is not able to access the image - whether they are visually impaired, have a slow or unstable internet connection, or whatever other reason. The description should be concise, often a sentence or even a few words, but must sufficiently represent the content.

More information about the reasons for including alt text and how to come up with the text itself can be found in the WebAim: Alternative Text entry.

Tips

• Avoid phrases like "Image of..." or "This picture shows...", instead diving right into the description.
• If a sentence or so is not enough, keep the alt text short and include a longer description in the surrounding content.
• Put yourself in the shoes of someone first encountering this content - what information do you need from this image?

Check out the video below for more information on how to add alt text to an image in a SUNY Online Blackboard course. You can also review the Blackboard resource on how to Add Images in the Blackboard Editor and how to Add Image Descriptions. For decorative images, refer to the entry on how to Mark an Image File as Decorative in Blackboard.

Note that while the general concepts will remain true, the specific layout, names, etc. of the template shown in the video are subject to change.