Text Descriptions for Engineering Students with Visual Impairments
Traditional print textbooks can present significant challenges for students with visual impairments, particularly in fields such as mechanical engineering where visual elements are critical to understanding the material.
To address this issue, the engineering content team here at zyBooks authored the paper High-Quality Text Descriptions of Visual Elements in Online Interactive Versions of Traditional Print Mechanical Engineering Textbooks, where they propose creating online interactive versions of mechanical engineering textbooks that include high-quality text descriptions of visual elements.
In this paper, presented at a recent ASEE conference, the authors discuss the importance of providing high-quality text descriptions of visual elements in online interactive versions of traditional print mechanical engineering textbooks. They provide guidelines for creating effective text descriptions, including the use of present tense and providing context for the visual element.
