Accessibility Checklist for Online Course Development by Becky Menendez (Instructional Design & Online Learning,
Community College of Baltimore County) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Alternative text (alt text) should be provided for
images.
- Consider the purpose of the image. Alt text
should convey content and functionality of the
image – not necessarily describe the image in
detail.
- Avoid redundancy (don’t duplicate information
found in surrounding text/caption, don’t put
“image of” in alt text).
- Never use a file name as alt text (e.g.
“microscope.jpg” or “image_003.gif”).
- Most alt text should be concise (less than 125
characters). Complex images might require
longer descriptions or alternate formats.
Avoid using images of tables or images containing
text. If important text is part of the image, provide
that information in the surrounding text or in the alt
text.
Decorative images, which don’t present important
content, should be given “empty” alt tags in web
content (such as Blackboard or Softchalk pages).
See program-specific resources in Items 9-12 for
information on how to provide alternative text in
specific programs.
WebAIM: Alternative Text
Focuses on web content (e.g.
Blackboard, Softchalk pages), but a
good overview on the basics of writing
alt text.
Image ALT Text
Additional guidelines for alt text.
Alt text blunders
Decorative Images
How to handle decorative images in
web content, such as Blackboard or
Softchalk pages.
Alternative Text for Images
Helpful guidelines for complex images,
particularly in web content.
NWEA Image Description
Guidelines for Assessments
Guidelines and examples for wide
variety of image types, subjects.
Image Description Guidelines
Guidelines and examples for various
image types.
Guidelines for Describing STEM
Images
Effective Practices for Description
of Science Content within Digital
Talking Books
Examples of alt text for different types
of science/math images.
Multimedia
(QM Standard 8.4, 8.5)
Video content should have captions or a
synchronized text transcript.
Audio-only content should have a text transcript.
Meaningful visual information in a video is conveyed
through audio description (or a text-based
description).
Captions/transcript must be accurate (watch out for
auto-captioning errors).
Break long videos (longer than 15-20 minutes) into
shorter segments.
Audio quality and video resolution are clear.
Users should be able to control movement through
videos or multimedia presentations.
Accessibility: Captions &
Transcripts
Caption Guidelines and Policy
Are Transcripts Enough to Make
Videos Compliant with Accessibility
Law?
Resources for Captioning
Four approaches to creating captions
in YouTube.
Zoom Pro: Automatically
Transcribe Cloud Recordings
Enable these settings before recording
to the Cloud. Note: Auto-transcriptions
can’t be corrected!
Adding Captions in Camtasia
Captioning in Screencast-o-Matic
Google Voice Typing
Auto-transcribe your speech or record
your computer audio in Windows 7
and transcribe an existing video.