Beyond Alt Text: Using AI to Design More Accessible Visual Learning

Images can explain a difficult concept, reveal patterns in data, provide evidence for analysis, establish context, or simply make a course more visually engaging. But adding an image to a course doesn't necessarily make learning more visual, or more accessible.

The first question isn't “What should the alt text say?” It's “What do I need students to learn from this image?”

In this hands-on workshop, we'll approach image accessibility as a design challenge rather than a remediation task. Participants will examine different types of course visuals -- from photographs and illustrations to charts, diagrams, and other complex images -- and consider what information students actually need to perceive and understand.

Participants will experiment with AI tools to draft, evaluate, and refine descriptions of visual content based on the image's instructional purpose. We'll examine where AI-generated descriptions can save time, where they can miss important context or meaning, and why instructor judgment remains essential.

We'll also consider when alt text alone isn't enough. A complex visual may be better supported by an extended description, explanatory text, underlying data, or another representation that gives students multiple ways to access the same essential information.

Session Objectives

By the end of this hands-on workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Identify the instructional purpose of an image and determine what information learners need to gain from it.

2. Distinguish among decorative, informative, and complex visual content to determine an appropriate accessibility strategy.

3. Use generative AI to draft image descriptions that reflect instructional context rather than simply describing what an image looks like.

4. Evaluate and refine AI-generated descriptions for accuracy, relevance, clarity, bias, and alignment with learning goals.

5. Determine when another representation is needed to make the meaning of complex visual content available to all learners.

Who should attend? Faculty and instructional staff who use images, charts, diagrams, screenshots, or other visual materials in their courses and want practical strategies for making those materials more meaningful and accessible. No prior experience with generative AI or accessibility tools is required.

Come prepared to work. Bring one or two images you currently use in a course. A chart, diagram, photograph, illustration, screenshot, or other meaningful visual works particularly well.

During the workshop, you'll identify what students need to learn from the image, experiment with AI-generated descriptions, evaluate what the AI gets right, and what it doesn't, and determine whether alt text, a longer description, or another representation best supports your instructional goal. You'll leave with at least one revised visual resource and a repeatable process you can use with other images in your course.

Prepare in Advance

To make the most of your hands-on time, we recommend reviewing these accessible-first resources before the session:

• USM Accessibility in Action: Images

• UDL on Campus: Images

This session will be facilitated by Dr. Mariann Hawken, Director of Instructional Technology. Open to all faculty and instructional staff.

RSVP

To RSVP for this workshop, click "Sign Up" in the myUMBC event and be sure to add it to your calendar! Registered participants will receive a calendar invitation from the event host at least one week before the event.

At least 5 registrations are needed for this session to proceed as scheduled. The session will be recorded if 5 or more people attend and the link will be distributed to everyone who registered.

JOINING THE SESSION

This workshop will take place in a Google Meet virtual conference room. Enter the workshop up to 15 minutes before the start time. Visit the myUMBC Event post and select the "Join Online Event" button to join the Google Meet session.

Prior to the Event

1. For the best viewing experience, we recommend using Chrome, Brave, or Firefox, preferably the most recent updates to those browsers. Closing any unnecessary browser tabs will help conserve your bandwidth. 
2. If this is your first time joining one of our webinars, please review the requirements to use Google Meet. Learn how to connect your audio & video,change/blur your background, and use reactions. You can also review the accessibility support including live captions.