Generative AI, In Practice: ALT Text, Part I 

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Now that we’ve finished our series on Generative AI over on Transform Your Teaching, we wanted to take this opportunity to dive into specifics for some of the ways GAI can help speed along parts of your process.  

CTL recently worked on a course project that included designing a lot of figures and graphics to be included in lesson pages – and each of those images needed to have alt text written for it. Now, I’m no stranger to writing alt text, and it isn’t the most complicated piece of work to do; but it can take a decent bit of time when you’re starting with a blank alt text field.  

To help speed up this process, we asked AI to generate alt text for each of the images. Before you think “Oh, amazing! AI can do this, and I can just drop whatever it generates into the alt text field and not worry about it at all,” that’s not quite the case. Microsoft’s Copilot provided an excellent starting point for alt text for each image, and it thoroughly cured the blank-page-itis that can be a plague. And it was easy to start using – I just had to log in with my Cedarville credentials, choose a conversation style (I used “more balanced”), and I could start asking questions. But the alt text did need to be thoroughly reviewed and modified since it created better alt text for some images than others. Let’s look at some examples. 

Example 1 

Copilot alt text: An infographic detailing the structure of the Book of Genesis, highlighting Moses’ key phrase for identifying major ideas and showing a color-coded representation of different sections. 

So, at first glance, this looks like pretty decent alt text! It does summarize the image well – but it summarizes a bit too well. If there’s text in an image, it should be fully written out in the alt text. The description of “showing a color-coded representation of different sections” is also a little vague for my liking. If you couldn’t see the image, you’d have no idea how those color-coded sections were actually presented from that description.  

Revised alt text (additions in italics): An infographic detailing the structure of the Book of Genesis, highlighting Moses’ key phrase (“these are the generations of,” sometimes translated as “this is the account of” or “this is what became of”) for identifying major ideas. A color-coded bar is presented below the text with each section representing a different major idea of the book and labeled with the corresponding chapter and verse. 

This revision incorporates the exact text included in the image and gives a clearer description of how the sections of Genesis are depicted.  

Example 2 

Copilot alt text: An infographic displaying five questions (“WHO,” “WHAT,” “WHY,” “WHEN,” and “HOW”) in separate colored boxes, each are connected by arrows pointing towards the central phrase “God SPOKE” in bold letters. 

This has some more glaring issues from the start. Yes, the five questions are displayed, and the boxes are different colors…but the arrows are only going from “Who” and “How” toward “God Spoke.”  

Revised alt text: An infographic displaying five questions (“WHO,” “WHAT,” “WHY,” “WHEN,” and “HOW”) in separate colored boxes. “What,” “Why,” and “When” are all faded to the background, while “Who” and “How” are presented normally. “Who” and “How” are connected by arrows pointing toward the central phrase “God SPOKE” in bold letters. 

This revision corrects what elements are connected to “God Spoke” and provides the context that the graphic is presenting. It also shows that the boxes aren’t just different colors – the questions that do not apply are faded to the background.  

Example 3 

Copilot alt text: In this enigmatic image, darkness prevails. A blurred figure stands before a skeletal tree, its branches reaching out like bony fingers. The person’s face remains hidden, adding to the intrigue. The color palette—dominated by deep blues and blacks—conjures a sense of foreboding. 

At the bottom, cryptic text reads “WWW.PASSION-MOVIE.COM.” Is it a clue? A portal to another realm? Or perhaps an invitation to unravel the unknown? 

Step cautiously into the shadows, for here lies a tale waiting to unfold—a passion that transcends mere mortal boundaries. 

That’s definitely an artistic and editorialized interpretation of this image. Thankfully, we have some context that Copilot didn’t have to help us edit (completely rewrite) the alt text.  

Revised alt text: An image from the movie “The Passion of the Christ” depicting Jesus from the top of the shoulders up in the garden during his arrest at night. The entire image is shadowy, with a torch poking into frame from the right side. 

Takeaways 

GAI can effectively be used to speed up the alt text creation process – just remember that you need to thoroughly review what the AI creates before you attach it to your image. As always results may vary depending on the GAI that you use and the prompts you create. Be sure to ALWAYS review your results and make corrections when needed. Next week, we’re going to keep talking about GAI and alt text, that time looking at how prompting affects what is generated and what gets the best results.  

Questions? Comments? Drop them below, and we’ll chat!  

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