Beyond Alt Text: Accessibility in Digital Collections

Abstract

Presentation given at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC) 2017 Fall Meeting in Buffalo, NY about discoverability versus accessibility in digitized archival collections, and strategies for moving beyond alt text to make digital content truly accessible to the millions of people worldwide with visual or hearing impairments. Includes a discussion of tools to provide better access to text based, photographic, graphic, and audiovisual materials, using examples from the digitized Lillian Thomas Pratt archives at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.