Overview

Step 1: Upload Image & provide alternative text or textual description
Step 2: Provide context for image and explanation/description on Canvas page above the image.

Step 1: Upload Image & Provide Alternative Text

Upload Image

Review the Canvas guide or view the content in the embedded page below.

Add Alt Text/Textual Description

There may be some students who are low-vision or blind and rely on assistive technologies to access course content.

Canvas automatically provides you an easy way to describe images when you upload an image in Canvas.

Avoid Redundancy - Streamline Student Learning

There may be some students who are

In the Alt Text field, write your textual description.

Assistive Technologies, such as screen readers, will read what the object type is before reading the element in Canvas.

This means when the screen reader is nearing a:

link - it will interpret what the Canvas object type is first and read aloud "Link" - then it will proceed to read the link description.
picture - it will interpret what the Canvas object type is and read aloud "Image of" - then it will read everything in the Alt Text field you provided.

So, this means in the Alt Text box, refrain from writing:

Picture of
Image of

For example, if you write in the Alt Text field: "Image of student smiling."

The screen reader will read aloud, "Image of Image of student smiling."

Step 2: Provide Image Introduction & Explanation

Which is more helpful?

Option 1
Option 2

Photosynthesis is a natural process by which trees and plants use energy from the sun and carbon dioxide from the air to make the food they need to live and grow. By storing carbon above and below the ground, the trees and plants in forests contribute to the production of oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis.

(Not seen by us unless we use a screen reader - Alt Text: Schematic of photosynthesis in plants. The carbohydrates produced are stored in or used by the plant.)

Reference

Wikimedia Foundation. (2024, January 9). Photosynthesis. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynthesis