Alt Text Accessibility
Katie Healey
Description
Alt text is essential for making course content accessible to all learners, yet many instructors feel uncertain about how to write it effectively. This 20-minute session will demonstrate how generative AI tools can support instructors in drafting alt text for images used in lectures, Canvas, and course materials before tailoring to their learning outcomes and editing for brevity and accuracy. The session covers basic accessibility principles, common pitfalls, and practical examples of using AI responsibly to meet WCAG 2.1 standards and institutional accessibility requirements. Attendees will leave with tips for reviewing and refining AI-generated descriptions to ensure they are inclusive, pedagogically useful, and compliant.
Link to the video [video.ucdavis.edu]
Access Alt Text Resources (Google Doc)
About the Presenter
Dr. Katie Healey (she/her) is the Education Specialist for Hybrid/Online Pedagogies with the Center for Educational Effectiveness at UC Davis. She earned her PhD from Yale University in the Program for the History of Science and Medicine, and her research examines the intersections of disability, deception, and technology during twentieth-century warfare. She was Visiting Assistant Professor in the department of Science, Technology, and Society at Rochester Institute of Technology from 2019-2021, where she taught courses in environmental studies; science, technology, and gender; biomedical issues and epidemic disease; and social consequences of technology.She is a champion of Universal Design for Learning, an instructional framework that reduces educational barriers for all students through flexible instruction and assessment. She leads the UC Accessibility (A11Y) Project and hosts the Disability Daily Podcast.
