Alt Text Descriptions

During the prototyping class about accessibility we did two small excercises to think more actively about image alt descriptions, inspired by alt-text-as-poetry.net/ and Kim and Eleni's workshop Alt Text Workshop.

Find the pad here: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/210426-accessibility

Excercise 1.

Given three minutes, write an alt-description for this image.

• Luca: in the center focus point, a white and red mug with a print. The print is a gorilla in resting position, painted in bob ross style. On its right, two human fingers form a peace sign. On its left, a consumer cellphone of the brand apple. On the background, a laptop computer, two blurred people wearing a yellow and a maroon shirt.
• Barbara: The image is a photograph. In the center of frame is a coffee cup, it has the handle on the left side. The width of the cup widens at the rim. The inside of the cup is red and the outside is covered with a realistic image of a gorilla, sitting and facing the camera. The gorilla is surrounded by green foliage. The cup is standing on a black table surface. To the left side of the cup is a smartphone lying down on the table, the screen is black. On the right side of the cup you can see someone's middle and pointer fingers straightened, doing a peace sign. In the background behind the cup is someone's laptop, it is silver colored. Behind the laptop you can see two people sitting, only their torso's with a yellow shirt and red shirt.
• ???: A cup with a picture of a gorilla sitting in a green environment printed on its outside, red on the inside, and a white handle. next to it, an iphone, and two finders stretching out into a peace sign. in the background, a laptop and two human torsos, wearing red and yellow.
• ???: On a black surface, a white cup with a gorilla sitting on the grass printed on it. Inside of the cup is red. On the left of the cup there is a black iphone and on the right there is someone's hand with v gesture. In the background there is a laptop with 2 people with yellow and brick color t-shirt.
• ???: an image that is taller than wider, probably like in in a ratio of 4:5. At the center of the image, placed on a table, a cilindirical mug, red inside. on the outside it is printed an image of a gorialla sitting in a garden. in the background a partial representation of a macbook by Apple and two people wearing one a yellow clothe and one brown. On the left side, an iphone placed faced down very next to the mug. On the right 2 fingers (index and miffle finger) are spread wide open vertically.
• ???: A mug with a gorilla and I don’t know why the inside is red, but I know this is the mug Kiki uses to drink coffee... From this perspective, you can see Kiki’s computer and her phone.
• ???: This is a rather bewildered gorilla. He’s printed on a very cheap mug with a red interior. I measured the gorilla’s size with my hand.
• robin: a standard coffee mug, sitting on a table. an iphone is laying upside down on a table on its left side. a hand is making a peace sign perpendicular to the cup on its right side. in the background, right behind it, is an opened macbook with an open text editor displaying some unreadable text, because of the background blur. on the cup is a picture of a gorilla, facing towards the camera. the gorilla is sitting, with its hands crossed, and is smiling towards the camera.
• daan: A picture of a white ceramic mug with a picture of a gorilla in a jungle printed on it. The mug has red interior. It's standing on a black office-like table. Next to the mug we see part of a hand which holds up a widely spread peace sign as a form of quick playfulness. In the background we see a an Apple laptop and two people sitting.
• valentin: In the center of the picture we can see a mug on the table and a part of an open laptop behind it and an iphone in the left corner. On the right side of the mug there are two fingers point finger and middle finger mimicing a scissors or a showing peace sign. The central part is the mug whch is shaped that the upper diameter is bigger than the lower part. On the mug there is a gorilla sitting.
• Tommi: This is a photo of a mug with a picture of a gorilla on the side, painted red in the inside. Next to it, two fingers are making the “V” sign. The mug is on a black and plain surface, next to it there is an iPhone with the screen facing down. In the background, blurred, a Macbook Pro, a person with a bordeaux sweater, and a person with a yellow t-shirt with short sleeves.
• Soda：In the center of the image, there is a cup featuring a chimpanzee sitting in a green forest background. The rest of the outside of the cup, apart from this illustration, is white, while the inside is red. Someone is making a peace sign toward the cup. In the background, there is a person wearing red and another wearing yellow, both only partially visible. There is also a MacBook and an iPhone in the scene.
• Kamo: Hold on!!!! Good job today! Here is your coffee, in the cup that you love the most. Sure this meeting has been a bore but… We are gonna go through it together ! Cheer up!!!!
• Philipp: An ape is sitting on a green grass in the foreground with green leaves in the background and a small opening through the sky. The ape is very muscular but their head is smaller than their body. This image is printed on a mug with an outward tip, with white border, and red graphic printed inside. Somebody is holding up a peace sign sideways like a scissor hand sign. There is a grey laptop in the background with some keys on the keyboard visible. The screen of the laptop is covered partially in sunlight reflection. What's on the screen is not visible.
• AI Alt Text Generator: A mug with an image of a gorilla sits on a desk next to a smartphone, with a hand making a V sign beside it. A laptop and two people are in the background.

Emerged comments:

• you don't know if it's a table.

• peace sign is a cultural context

• what is a torso, isn't it bust?

• V is universal shape

• who is kiki?

• cheap? what is the evaluation, low-quality

• what is standard?

• picture can be anything (drawing, photo, engraving, etc.)
• different priorities and focus points when it comes to describing the contents

Excercise 2.

Everyone pick a photo and describe it in three minutes. Descriptions are then distributed between each other without seeing the source photo. Re-draw the image based on the description.

Image	Caption
	a photo of a room, somewhere on the top floor of a building, the perspective runs perpendicular to the camera. the while wall of the room goes vertically, then, a bit below eye level, the roof the wall slants towards the camera at an angle that's hard to see because of the perspective.
	A digital drawing of a round yellow shape representing a face. This is commonly referred as an Emoji. 2 very big rounded eyes spread wide open. Eyebrows are very risen above the eyes. A very small mouth. Red shaded chicks. The whole drawing of this expression is inflated to that everything is enlarged and with a spherical perspective where things are narrower towards the outside of the sphere. The expression represents major shock and disbelief. Drawing is : Luca  (a part from the chick all gooed)
	There is an Asian guy who people assume is under 18 but is actually 28 years old standing in the foreground wearing a blue peaky blinders cap, a short sleeved summer Daily Paper blouse with Van Gogh's Irises painting printed on it, a Mona Lisa t shirt, a fanny pack strapped over his shoulders from the Adidas Germany World Cup collection, and summer shorts from the same set and collection of the blouse. There is a sunny beach in the background with a few white clouds and some tiny figures on the beach. The beach is actually famous during WW2, because it is Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, where American infantry landed on the 6th of June 1944 as part of D-Day to liberated Europe from Nazi Germany. It is famously portrayed in the movie, Saving Private Ryan, and is nicknamed Bloody Omaha. German artilleries opened fire on the Americans only stepping out of their boats. (Kamo is drawing)
	This image is divided in two. On the left side there is a portrait photo of pop superstar Katy Perry wearing a beige hoodie, thin-framed glasses, and braided hair. It seems like she is talking, and on the background we see a fountain, with lights, so the picture was taken in the night. On the right, there is a hand, probably Katy Perry’s, leaving (or picking up) a credit card from the inside of the fountain. From the article this image was taken from, we know that Katy Perry exaggerated the tradition of throwing coins in the “Fontana di Trevi” in Rome, and just left her credit card inside. If you are reading this image description, you are now entitled to pirate and Soulseek Katy Perry’s music as much as you want because she does not need any money, apparently. For sure she does not deserve it. Robin is drawing
	A drawing of a corn colored by a korean kid, that was also learning how to write corn in korean, probably. The corn is sitting on the floor, and looking towards the viewer startled. (sibyl is drawing)
	top part of a white skyscraper with a large blank panel covering the the forward facing side of the building. Keeping some margins on the the side. If you would compare it to an A4 the margin would be like 3mm, so it's a matter of scale. (Ema is drawing)
	On the picture we can see a gold fish with a wihite backgorund. The fish centered and it is facing left. The fish has one fin on its back, one as a tail, one pair under the tail, one pair under the belly and one pair under its gills (Lea is drawing)
	a meme showing a venn diagram with two circles: one is light yellow, with a photograph of a cat (no background), underneath it says CAT. the other circle is light purple, with a photograph of a printer (no background), above the image it says INKJET PRINTER. the overlapping area is orange, saying: MOODY // UNRELIABLE // SPENDS A LOT OF TIME SELF CLEANING // DEMANDS FEEDING WHEN CONTAINER IS FULL // IGNORES REQUESTS. (Tommi is drawing this)
	The image is a photograph. It shows a body of water, like the surface of a pond. In the center is a frog chilling on the surface of the water. Its backside is facing the camera, you can see one of its eyes. It has a yellow line running over the middle of its body. You can see all four of its legs. It is holding on to a large, curled up leaf floating in the water. To the bottom of the image, behind the frog, is a lilypad floating in the water. The edges of the green lilypad are brown and it has some brown spots. To the upperleft corner of  the frame are large reeds sprouting from the water. The right side of frame is mostly water with some clovers and leaves floating in it.The water has a dark green hue. The frog, lilypads, leaves and reeds all have a green-yellow hue. (daan is drawing) (youjung is drawing)
	This photo mainly features four raw meat which put in the four silver container like beef marrow, pork trotters, a pig’s head, and a dish named in Dutch as “varkens staart” I can’t recognise it. These items are displayed in a silver showcase, each with its own price tag. The lighting has a soft, pinkish glow, which I assume is intended to make the meat look fresher. There is also a jar of lard in a plastic container placed next to the pig’s head, giving it an authentic. kiki draw
	On the left, there is a monkey-like character with yellow fur on its cheeks, wearing a red-and-white headpiece. It is making eye contact with a character on the right—a white-haired elder with a long straight beard, long eyelashes, and a receding hairline. Both of them wear a knowing smile. The white-haired elder on the right is pointing toward the monkey-like character on the left. Background of the image is a blue sky no cloud. youjung draw this
	We can see a cat fighting with a takeaway bag, like a dinosaur. The takeaway bag from a coffee brand and the cat is a Devon Rex, though it’s clear from the look in her eyes that, as well as being a Devon, she’s also a little Devil. (barbara draw this)
	a bunny shaped chocolate wrapped in a gold foil with a red ribbon on the neck is placed on a marble textured surface. The ear of the wrap is ripped and someone already had a bit on it. The chocolate is lindt and it's milk chocolate. (valentin draw) (pretty accurate, a part from the rip)
	A profile picture from a slightly above angle. The person looks up to the camera and smiles shyly. Mid 30s, short hair and a small troubadour. A short goatee and moustache, and a transparent framed glasses. The person wears a dark t-shirt with the saying "people doing strange things with software". In the background, some shelves and an archive. The picture has a glitch filter, showing some chroma distortion. (PHILLIP draw this)