Presenter: Brielle Erike, Accessibility Program Lead

The November 6 Access GCCCD Activation Series session explored practical strategies for creating accessible images and tables in documents, presentations, and webpages. Participants learned how to distinguish meaningful and decorative images, write effective alternative text, provide extended descriptions, and structure tables for accessibility.

The session recording, presentation slides, and additional resources are available below.

Session Recording and Presentation Materials

Key Takeaways

• Meaningful images: Provide concise alt text that communicates the image's purpose and essential information.
• Decorative images: Mark images as decorative when they add visual interest but convey no essential information.
• Complex images: Use short alt text and an extended description for diagrams, charts, and infographics that require additional explanation.
• Tables: Use tables for information that requires meaningful relationships between rows and columns, not simply for page layout.
• Table structure: Provide descriptive titles, identify headers using the available authoring tools, and avoid unnecessary complexity.

Additional Resources

Images and Alternative Text

These tutorials demonstrate how to improve image accessibility across common tools used for teaching, communication, and webpage development.

• How to Make a Microsoft PowerPoint Section 508 Accessible (YouTube video)
• Accessible Images in Microsoft Word 2022 (YouTube video)
• Accessible Tables with Modern Campus CMS (YouTube video)
• How to Create Alt Text for Images in Canvas (YouTube video)

Accessible Tables

These tutorials demonstrate how to create and format tables that support meaningful structure and navigation for assistive technology users.

• How to Make Tables Accessible in Microsoft Word: Section 508 Series (YouTube video)
• Tables in PowerPoint for Accessibility (YouTube video)
• Accessible Tables with Modern Campus CMS (YouTube video)
• Creating Accessible Tables in Canvas (YouTube video)

Google Suite Users

Support for Accessibility in Google Suite

Recommended Next Steps

Choose a document, presentation, or webpage you use regularly. Review its images and tables, add or improve text alternatives, simplify tables where appropriate, and run an accessibility checker before sharing.

Remember: Images need meaning. Tables need structure.

Need Additional Support?

Visit the Access GCCCD Accessibility Hub for additional training, resources, and opportunities to receive accessibility support.