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Minnesota IT Services sent this bulletin at 03/22/2018 09:03 AM CDT

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Digital Accessibility News from Minnesota IT Services
A panel of presenters speaking to a large group of people.

Minnesota Presents at CSUN

The 33rd CSUN Assistive Technology Conference (“CSUN”) will take place March 21-23. It has long been recognized as the largest conference on digital accessibility and assistive technology (AT) held in the world. All the industry leaders in accessibility and AT attend as presenters, sponsors, exhibitors, and attendees. Top technology providers, from Microsoft and Google to Adobe and Facebook, will present on their latest developments in accessible technology.

State of Minnesota staff are also participating in two presentations. Find more information, handouts and resources on our blog.

Best Practices for Alternative Text

By Becky Bernauer, Web and Accessibility Coordinator, Minnesota IT Services Partnering with Minnesota Department of Health

Alternative text (alt text) is a valuable tool that ensures nonvisual readers and other users of assistive technology (AT) get information from pictures, graphics, and other images. Good alt text also provides other benefits depending on the document type.

Instructions for Adding Alt Text in Microsoft Office

This process works for all Microsoft content creation programs, such as Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

  • Right-click (Shift + F10) the image and choose Format Picture.
  • In the Format Picture pane, select the Layout & Properties icon. 
  • Select “Alt text.”
  • In the Description field enter a description of the image.

What makes good alt text? What do you do when a short summary is not possible? All of our best practices for alternative text can be found on our blog.

Upcoming Presentation

Charting the Cs

The Office of Accessibility and Minnesota IT Services' accessibility coordinator at the Minnesota Department of Education will provide a pre-conference session for Minnesota educators, clinicians, school administrators and IT staff. The session will cover accessibility basics, how they improve access for students that use assistive technology, and techniques to use when creating accessible digital content. Presenters: Jennie Delisi and Kim Wee.

When: Sunday, April 22, 2018

Location: Alexandria, Minnesota

Registration and conference fees available on the Charting the Cs website.