Alternative Text
Accessibility practices, like alternative text, play a key role in ensuring everyone can engage with online media with equity — whether it’s news, humor, education, or even gifs. Everyone deserves the same level of access to the internet.
I’ve had the pleasure of working with Scribely, an accessibility agency, to provide alternative text [alt text] for a spectrum of media, including gifs, scripts, magazines, documentaries, children’s books, and biographies. For each project, we tailor the writing style to suit the specific audience, making sure the description is detailed but nuanced. Check out some of our projects below!
GIPHY
I’ve written over thousands of alt text for GIPHY and was able to be a part of the team to pilot the first ever live-written alt text. Imagine live-tweeting, but for alt text!
GIPHY’s official Oscar coverage, in partnership with the Academy, gave us the opportunity to write alt text live — for the first time in alt text history. This enabled impaired media users to have access to the gifs as they were being released in real-time, bridging the gap through real-time coverage. These were a unique challenge, since we had to provide on-air context to the GIFs to tell the full story of what was happening as it happened.
Oscars 2024 GIF. Ryan Gosling walks up slowly on stage with Mark Ronson, who is playing the guitar and he's performing I'm Just Ken. The two men look at each other and Gosling gently knuckles Ronson's face, in an endearing, understanding manner that being a man is hard. Ronson spins away and Gosling continues singing while trying not to laugh.
Illustrated gif. Frida Kahlo wears a red shawl, pink earrings in the shapes of hands, and has her hair up in a crown of red flowers. Wind blows gently around her and she smiles at us while holding her fist at her chest. Text above her reads, “International Women’s Day.”
Oscars 2024 GIF. John Cena is in the middle of his nude journey to the microphone, shuffling horizontally towards the podium with the Oscar winner envelope covering his precious parts. He moves carefully and takes small, measured steps, trying to avoid any accidental peeks. His face is stressed. It's a long way to the microphone.
Stop motion gif. Artist mouse wearing a black beret and an apron holds a palette in one paw and a paintbrush in the other. A rotating Easter egg is in front of it and it paints the egg with flowers and bunnies. Text above it reads, "Frohe Ostern."
Oscars 2024 GIF. We see Matt Damon's Hollywood Star and a dog leg lifted above it. The camera pans out and we see Messi, the dog from Anatomy of a Fall, taking a quick whizz on Damon's star. He looks to be without remorse and runs away quickly after the job is done.
Sports gif. Rally car catches big air when it flies off the top of a hill, mid-race. It hits the ground hard and continues racing as a big dust cloud trails behind it.
Owlkids
Children's books are mainly image-driven and often educational, making alt text for each image essential. I had the opportunity to write alt text for five children's books published by Owlkids. There were two main challenges with this project: capturing the right tone for each book and ensuring the alt text was both descriptive and made sense within the context of the story.
To address these challenges, I included extended descriptions alongside the standard alt text. Extended descriptions provide a comprehensive description of each image from color to context. With educational books, extended description are crucial for screen readers to accurately convey the content of each image in relation to the story.
Client Testimony:
“The image descriptions from Scribely are a great match for our books — kid-friendly and nicely written!” – Katherine Dearlove, Owlkids
Standard description:
Staring directly at us, a panting bloodhound has alert eyes and a bright red tongue.
Extended description:
Arrows point at distinguishing features of the bloodhound. An arrow at the nose tells us that a dog's wet nose helps them trap odor particles. Below we see a close up of a dog's nostrils, with arrows flowing down and out. This shows how dogs exhale through the side slits in their nose, protecting odor molecules in their nose and allowing them to collect more smells from the ground. On the right, arrows point at their wrinkles, ears, and tongue, all essential components towards helping a dog trap scent particles. The last arrow at the bottom points at the flews and dewlaps. Flews are long, droopy lips and dewlaps are the flaps of sagging skin around a dog's neck.