Is the Alternative Equivalent?

Open your team’s Quiz 1 Study Guide. Check the strongest topic, the topic that needs work, and any claim that still needs an authoritative source.

1. Which of your three topics feels strongest?
2. Which one still needs work?
3. Which important claim still needs an authoritative source?

What would someone miss if this image were gone?

For an informative image, write the meaning or function that matters. For a decorative image, use `alt=""`; in that context, the image adds no meaningful information.

Context changes the answer. The same image may need different alt text elsewhere. A chart, map, diagram, or other complex visual may need a longer equivalent so its important relationships and data are available.

Discuss the existing examples:

1. For the bus-stop photograph, what information or function matters in the surrounding page?
2. For the storefront illustration, when would `alt=""` be appropriate because its use is decorative in that context?
3. For the map or attendance chart, what information would need to be preserved beyond a short alternative?

A short alt can identify a chart, map, diagram, or infographic and sometimes state its main point. If important information will not fit, add a longer equivalent: visible explanation, structured data, a table, directions, or another suitable representation. Preserve the information and relationships that matter, not every pixel.

Captions stay synchronized with audio and video. They include speech and meaningful non-speech sounds. Transcripts make the content available as separate readable text, but a transcript does not normally replace captions for video.

On a webpage, captions can use native HTML `<track kind="captions">` with a WebVTT file, or come from YouTube, Vimeo, Panopto, or a similar platform. Put a transcript below the media, inside native `<details>` / `<summary>`, or on a separate linked HTML page for longer content.

Discuss:

1. What information or relationships would a short alternative leave out of the map, chart, or video?
2. Watch once without sound. What disappears? Now imagine you cannot see it. What disappears then?
3. Which implementation would best preserve that information in this context?

• Module 01: Accessible According to Whom?
• ADA Title II, Section 504, and the role and scope of Section 508.
• WCAG and W3C.
• POUR.
• WCAG success criteria and A / AA / AAA conformance.
• Authoritative sources and evidence.
• The limits of legal compliance, institutional policy, and WCAG conformance as complete measures.
• The recurring question: How do you know?
• Module 02: Can You See What Matters?
• Color dependence.
• Text contrast and non-text contrast.
• Text resizing, browser zoom, and reflow.
• Clipping, overlap, and loss of content or function.
• Visual cues such as color, shape, position, boundaries, and state.
• Testing with tools such as WAVE and contrast checkers.
• Tool output is evidence to investigate, not a final accessibility verdict.
• Redesigning and retesting a claim.
• Module 03: What Does This Media Say?
• Informative versus decorative images.
• `alt=""` for decorative images.
• How context changes the appropriate text alternative.
• Communicating meaning or function instead of describing every pixel.
• Complex visuals such as charts, maps, diagrams, and infographics.
• Short alternatives versus longer descriptions, visible explanations, or structured data.
• Captions and transcripts.
• Meaningful visual information in video.
• The difference between audio information and visual information.
• Whether an alternative actually preserves what matters.

Use your Challenge 03 topics, earlier Class Work, course resources, and authoritative sources to decide what belongs in your study guide.

Exchange one Challenge 03 topic with another team. No separate submission or formal peer-review form is required.

1. Identify one thing that is clear.
2. Identify one thing that seems incomplete or oversimplified.
3. Identify one claim that should be checked against an authoritative source.

Use the rest of class to revise and finish your Quiz 1 Study Guide section.

The three team submissions will be archived together as part of the class review material for Quiz 1.