Alt Text as Poetry

Floor 8, Trustee Room

July 14, 12–1 pm, 2:30–3:30 pm

Alt text is an essential part of web accessibility. A short description of an image or GIF, alt text is a way of making visual content accessible to blind and low-vision people using screen readers. Alt text is often understood through the lens of compliance or disregarded altogether as an unwelcome burden to be met with minimum effort. How can we instead approach alt text thoughtfully and creatively, while still prioritizing it as an accessibility practice?

In this workshop, led by Bojana Coklyat and Finnegan Shannon, we will reframe alt text as a type of poetry and practice writing it together. We will look at examples of poetic and creative approaches to alt text, then do writing exercises designed to focus on issues that often come up, including attention to language and word economy, translation, structuring and prioritizing, subjectivity, identity, and representation. You can find more information on what alt text is, and how we can practice it as poetry, on Bojana Coklyat and Finnegan Shannon’s website. 

ASL or protactile interpretation is available through request at accessfeedback@whitney.org. Please request interpretation two weeks before the program date.