Adding Accessible Images in Blackboard

When developing a course in Blackboard, or any learning management system, you should ensure that every image has an alt-tag, or description. This is vital for ensuring that everyone benefits fairly. With a description, those with visual assisting software, or screen reading technology, can make sense of the image. Without a description, visually impaired students will only be presented a meaningless string of characters. (For example: you could hear this instead of this)  Since increasing accessibility is key to inclusivity and student success, as we as the law, it is vital to add a description to each image.  Luckily, doing so is relatively easy.

You just need to follow these steps:

1. In the Content Editor, select the third button from the far left on the third (bottom) toolbar. This button has a picture frame with a mountain and sun in it.
2. A new window will open. An image box will be starred. Just underneath the box is a button that states “Browse My Computer”. Select this. It will allow you to search your computer and select the image file you want to use.
3. Now, make sure give the image a meaningful Title and Image Description. This is important because this is how screen readers can access the image and translate them for the visually impaired. This will make the image more accessible, which is good practice, and ADA Compliant.
4. Select the “Appearance tab”. Select an alignment for the image. In general, if the image is not too large, you should select “Right” alignment and place it on the top of the page. This will give the image visibility while not drawing away from the users navigation ability or the primary text. For manageable whitespace, consider have a Vertical Space of 7 and a Horizontal Space of 11.
5. Select the “Insert” button

Congratulations, you have added an accessible image.