Rethink �Image Descriptions for a Better �Learning Experience

CSUN AT Conference

Laura Ciporen

March 15, 2023

Laura Ciporen

Digital Content Accessibility Manager, McGraw Hill Higher Ed.

• Brooklyn, NY
• Pronouns: She
• CPACC from IAAP
• 100% focused on content accessibility for ~9 years
• M.A. in Educational Communication and Technology from NYU

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Rethink Image Descriptions for a Better Learning Experience | CSUN 2023

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Agenda

What Image Descriptions Are

How I See It: Informational vs. Educational Content

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Beyond Decorative and Non-Decorative

Three Questions to Be More Mindful

Assessing for Assessments

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Image Description, Alt Text, �Long / Extended Description…

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What Good Image Descriptions in General Are and Are Not

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Distinct from Captions

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Captions are ABOUT the image, descriptions ARE the image

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Example of Caption

From the NY Times of Israel: Netanyahu took ‘vow of silence’ for US elections

Caption: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, seen with then-Education Minister Naftali Bennett at the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, on August 30, 2016.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/ny-times-netanyahu-took-vow-of-silence-for-us-elections/

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Usually Not Literal Descriptions

Example: An image in content talking about the importance of eating well.

Visual Description (not a good image description):

Young woman slightly smiles as she makes full eye contact with the viewer. She holds a spoonful of granola, milk, nuts, and blueberries almost to her mouth, tipping the spoon slightly toward the viewer. Her other hand holds a light blue bowl with the rest of her granola.

© McGraw Hill

Rethink Image Descriptions for a Better Learning Experience | CSUN 2023

Conveying Information (good image description):

Young woman happily eating granola with milk, berries, and nuts.

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Why a Learning Focus Means We Need to Rethink Standard Advice

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How I See It: Informational vs. Educational Content

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Comparison of Content Purposes

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Standard Categorization of Images

Decorative

(eye-candy)

Non- Decorative (Informative or Functional)

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Standard Guidance; OK for Informational Sites

• Can be reduced to: What information in this image is essential to the page?
• Lots of images might be declared decorative
• Can be prescriptive: description can interpret the image for the user or narrowly describe it
• Individual users might never know there was more on the page

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My New Categorization of Images for Educational Content

Decorative

(Filler)

Non-Content (Supplementary)

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Content (Essential)

REVISED

NEW

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Non-Content Images

Definition:

• Images that enhance the experience but whose removal would not impede learning the material.

Non-Content (Supplementary)

Rethink Image Descriptions for a Better Learning Experience | CSUN 2023

NEW

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Content Image Example

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Non-Content Image Example

Feature discussing the daily lives of the Aztecs, including details of an ancient sport.

Caption: Heavy padding protects the internal organs of this Aztec ballplayer from being injured by the heavy, dangerous rubber ball.

©McGraw Hill

Rethink Image Descriptions for a Better Learning Experience | CSUN 2023

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Informational Non-Content Image Example

Using a screenshot to accompany the following instruction:

Once you have selected the object, open the contextual menu (right click or use shift-F10) and select “edit alt text.”

Rethink Image Descriptions for a Better Learning Experience | CSUN 2023

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Study in Support: Do Pictures Make a Difference in College Textbooks?

Conclusions:

• Students strongly preferred pictures. Engages them more.
• "Including pictures, such as those of people, buildings, artifacts and landscapes in college history text material does not seem to increase a college student's comprehension of the material, even when the pictures have been selected because they support the main ideas of the text.”

Smith, B. D., & Elifson, J. M. (1986). Do Pictures Make a Difference in College Textbooks?. Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts, 26 (4).

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(Not Scientifically Rigorous) Study Summary

8 SR users read 3 versions of 3 readings: Which level of descriptions did you prefer, and why?

1. As few image descriptions as possible. Anything not totally essential to the learning goals got empty alt text. Extended descriptions very rare.
2. More reasonable amount of descriptions. Priority was to keep cognitive load down and keep focus on the essentials.
3. Everything with at least alt text. Lots of very detailed extended descriptions.

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For Comparison…

• 3 sighted students who I had read the content didn’t spend much time on the images.
• But they all wanted them there, just like the previously-mentioned study.

Rethink Image Descriptions for a Better Learning Experience | CSUN 2023

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Results

The screen reader users wanted the highest level of description…and more.

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Screen Reader User Quote

This [most described version] was my favorite version by far. I finally got the descriptions of the pictures I just had a feeling I was missing. This is great, because for an E-Book on nutrition you want those images in the mind as you read along.

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Quotes Cont.

Finally! I've gained some extra context that I didn't even know was missing. The descriptions of the image content itself really added to my understanding of what the captions were referring to.

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How Can We Be More Mindful of the Information Our Images Contain?

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But Does it Have to Be THAT Non-Content Image?

“Non-essential” should lend flexibility

• Encourage content authors to think about the describability of any non-content images they request or propose

The bizarre goblin shark (Mitsukurina owstoni) is typically found in water deeper than 100 m (330 ft) in many coastal regions worldwide.

Source: Bill Ober Taken from Marine Biology, Eleventh Edition. Copyright (c)2019 by McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved.

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Educational Descriptions Must be More Mindful

Three key questions:

1. Why is this image here? �(Why this image and not another, what is its purpose in context?)
2. What relevant information can we reasonably expect a sighted classmate to get out of the image?
3. How might the image be used in the educational setting?

(The first two will improve even informational sites’ image descriptions.)

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Question 1: Why Is This Image Here?

Establish educational purpose of image

• If it were removed, what would be lacking?
• What does its presence add? What is this image saying that the surrounding text is not?

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Question 2: What relevant information will the sighted audience get from the image?

• What is this image saying that the surrounding text is not?
• Evoked emotions are sometimes “relevant information.”
• Remember your audience: what would THEY, get out of looking at this image? �Note: This is not necessarily what the person who chose the image WANTS people to get out of it.

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Question 3: How Might the Image Be Used?

• How else besides the author’s original intention might this image be used in a class?
• What information must be included to make that possible?
• Is the image used in an assessment?

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Assessments Must Let Students Fail

Assessment descriptions must include…

• The relevant details that will help the student get the answer right
• The irrelevant details that would point a student who doesn’t understand the material to the wrong answer

(Use answer options or likely misconceptions to guide which irrelevant details should be included.)

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Content Presentation Vs. Assessment Description

Content Presentation:

Colonial style house featuring a symmetrical build with a centered front door and evenly spaced windows and pillars.

Source: https://www.zoo.com/quiz/how-many-architectural-styles-can-you-identify-an-image

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Assessment:

Which architectural style is this?

1. Neo-classical
2. Colonial
3. Federal

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Summary Takeaways

• When information equity and learning outcomes matter, the “information content” of an image needs more careful consideration
• 3 types of images: Content images are essential, non-content are removeable but when there are just as important to describe, decorative doesn’t apply much
• Base description content on answers to 3 questions:
• Why this image here?
• What relevant information will the sighted audience get from the image?
• How might the image be used?
• Assessment images must often contain information that can lead to the wrong answer as well as to the right one

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