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Text Equivalents | Illustrations | Long Descriptions | Styled Text | Flickering Graphics

Images

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Images can enhance a Web-based course and improve comprehension by visually depicting complex concepts, providing context, and/or illustrating relationships.

This section describes several techniques you can use to create more accessible images:

Text Equivalents
Text equivalents, or "alt text," make graphics accessible to students who cannot see images.

 Students who are blind.

Illustrations
Well-placed illustrations can simplify content and increase comprehension.

 Students with specific learning disabilities.

Long Descriptions
Descriptions of complex graphics (graphs, charts, etc.) ensure that all students can understand the content.

 Students who are blind.Students with low vision.

Styled Text instead of Graphic Text (when possible)
Styled text is more legible, especially to students who need to increase the text size.

 Students with low vision.

Flickering and Blinking Graphics
Flickering and blinking graphics are distracting and can even induce seizures, so they should be avoided.

 Students with health impairments.Students with specific learning disabilities.


Tip.
The techniques in this section include instructions for HTML, Microsoft FrontPage 2000, Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, and Netscape Composer 4+. If you use Microsoft Word to develop Web pages, use the HTML instructions to make your Web page accessible. One good place to get started with HTML is the WebAIM Basic HTML Tutorial.

Netscape Composer and the Netscape browser (versions previous to 6) do not support many accessibility features. As a result, we recommend that you use another Web page editor (for example, Microsoft FrontPage 2000) or, even better, learn a little bit of HTML.

Images: Back | Forward to Text Equivalents


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