How do you write alternate text for a work with visual artistic merit?

• How you balance too many words versus sufficient details?
• What details should come first?
• How do you account for different audiences, their needs and preferences?
• Should it be written by the original artist or a professional describer?

In a recent IAAP webinar, inclusive media expert Joanne Pak explained an initiative to answer these questions and more.

The Literary Image Description (LID) Best Practices Guide is a Canadian government-funded project aiming to:

offer a more vivid and engaging approach to writing image descriptions in an effort to make art and literature more accessible to all readers everywhere.

Visit the project website to download a well-researched and illustrated guide in EPUB or PDF. Then maybe next time you see a painting, sculpture, comic strip, or even clever set of visual instructions, you can take a swing at making your own image description*!

*But of course, don’t publish unless you first talk to the author or do sufficient research into the intent!