Alternative text (alt text) is important, though often a secondary thought, when creating digital resources. When creating open educational resources, the written content is often the focus, with visuals added to support it. Accessibility requirements mandate that written descriptions be added to visual content in educational resources. With recent advances in AI, many are using AI to generate alt text for images in OERs. This can be done relatively quickly, but still requires significant time for reviewing, editing, and correctly inserting alt text so screen readers can access it and provide detailed descriptions. This talk advocates working with students to develop alt text to focus on the educational component of OERs. Students are eager to work with faculty on meaningful projects and can successfully develop alt text and assess its effectiveness. This talk will discuss how to do this, the benefits, and the challenges.
Attendees of this session will be able to:- Develop and refine alternative text.
- Incorporate students in the process of developing and refining alternative text.
- Encourage student involvement in OER development and creation.