Overview of the Art of ALT

Welcome to the Art of ALT, a series of online lessons about building accessibility into Web-based humanities content. These lessons provide information to help build Web sites whose content is available to those with disabilities.

Purpose

The purpose of these tutorials is to define and explain accessibility and to provide guidance about how to think about and plan for accessibility in a project. The production of humanities-related materials such as historical documents, maps, photographs, images of artwork, sound recordings, video, historical timelines, literary texts, and architectural records can present significant accessibility challenges.

Some people may be providing content rather than developing the actual site. These content providers should have a basic understanding of accessibility so they can be sure to give the developers the necessary material—for example, a text description to accompany a photograph.

Audience

These tutorials are intended for:

• Scholars
• Teachers
• Museum staff
• Individuals and groups who are interested in using the Web to expand the reach of the humanities.

How to use

The first lesson is especially for those new to accessibility. It introduces many of the basic concepts associated with accessibility and disabilities. Lessons 2-5 can be selected according to the specific medium appropriate to a content provider’s Web site (images, videos, graphs, etc.)

The lessons can also be used with an instructor guiding and discussing the concepts with a group of students.

Begin Lesson 1: Introducing Accessibility