Accessibility of natural sciences assignments

[Rena Grossman]

Hello,

Many natural sciences' assignments require students to review structural components of things like parts of the body or parts of a cell.

Technically faculty can write descriptive alt text for the image, but the assessment is to select or label with the correct name of the structure. 

Has anyone found a reasonable way to make an assignment like this accessible? 

Thank you,

Rena Grossman

Rena D. Grossman, MLIS

Open Educational Resources Librarian, Adjunct

LaGuardia Community College (CUNY)

rgro...@lagcc.cuny.edu

She/her/Rena What's this?

[Robert Lucas]

Rena,

I'm also very interested in this question! I'm also sad I don't have good answers.

WCAG 1.1.1 allows that some exceptions here:

Sometimes a test or exercise must be partially or completely presented in non-text format. Audio or visual information is provided that cannot be changed to text because the test or exercise must be conducted using that sense. For example, a hearing test would be invalid if a text alternative were provided. A visual skill development exercise would similarly make no sense in text form. And a spelling test with text alternatives would not be very effective. For these cases, text alternatives should be provided to describe the purpose of the non-text content; of course, the text alternatives would not provide the same information needed to pass the test.

So...I guess the question becomes is the visual a requirement of the assessment, or could it be presented in a textual format — such as by using data in a table — without compromising the assessment. Certainly, that would be a question for the SME to decide.

I like how this university explains their process for alternative provisions in assessments where an image is necessary:

Under WCAG 2.1 (1.1.1), exemptions apply where describing an image would invalidate the question.

• Provide alt text for identification, but it does not need to replace the image or reveal answers.
• If an image cannot be made fully accessible without compromising integrity, note this in your Module-level Accessibility Statement and explain alternative provisions.

Finally, this site from the National Center for Accessible Media is the best resource (with examples) I've seen about creating alternative text descriptions to complex images - not specifically about assessments.

Here's hoping others continue to think about and work on this complex issue!

Robert Lucas (He/Him/His)

Instructional Designer

ext. 8525

Book time to meet with me

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