[NFBWATlk] James webb telescope discription

Thu Jul 21 16:30:23 UTC 2022

Original Source
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/20/nasa-images-accessible-t
ext/> 

The unexpected star of NASA's Webb images - the alt text descriptions

A team in Baltimore was responsible for the words that made the stunning
photos accessible to everyone

Perspective by  <https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/theresa-vargas/>
Theresa Vargas

Metro columnist

July 20, 2022 at 5:09 p.m. EDT

This image released by NASA on July 12 was captured by the James Webb Space
Telescope. (AP)

Comment

Gift Article

Share

In the days since NASA publicly shared stunning images captured by the James
Webb Space Telescope, people have oohed and aahed. They have marveled at the
breathtaking beauty of those photos and the significant lessons about the
universe that might exist in those crisp cosmic details.

But it's not only the photos that have wowed people.

Many have also been struck by the thoughtful descriptions that have
accompanied them.

"If anyone ever tells you alt text isn't important, show them @NASA's alt
text for the #WebbSpaceTelescope images," Kate Meyers Emery
<https://twitter.com/kmeyersemery/status/1547323811284107265> tweeted. "They
are able to convey the wonders and beauty of these in words, making these
breathtaking views accessible."

"This isn't just a stunning picture from @NASA, it's a brilliant example of
how to use alt text," the Royal National Institute of Blind People tweeted.
"Do you agree?"

"It's clear that the NASA digital team put a lot of thought and care into
how they described the Webb Telescope images, and their descriptions feel
like a love letter to space exploration and the infinite marvels of the
universe," Alexa Heinrich, of Accessible Social, wrote in an emailed
newsletter. "Accessibility expands the world for everyone, making even
distant stars attainable. It's a beautiful thing indeed."

The alt text feature on social media platforms allows a person to describe
through words an image so that someone who is blind or visually impaired can
use screen-reader technology to know what is being shown. In other words, it
makes an image accessible to everyone. And in the case of the recent photos
shared by NASA, it allowed everyone to know they were looking at celestial
scenes bursting with colors and shapes.

<https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/07/11/nasa-james-webb-space-tel
escope-images/?itid=lk_interstitial_manual_12> NASA unveils first images
from James Webb Space Telescope

NASA, of course, should have included those descriptions with its photos.
That it did was not surprising. What proved unexpected was how poetically
striking and scientifically accurate those descriptions ended up being.

"The image is divided horizontally by an undulating line between a
cloudscape forming a nebula along the bottom portion and a comparatively
clear upper portion," reads one. "Speckled across both portions is a
starfield, showing innumerable stars of many sizes. The smallest of these
are small, distant, and faint points of light. The largest of these appear
larger, closer, brighter, and more fully resolved with 8-point diffraction
spikes. The upper portion of the image is bluish, and has wispy translucent
cloudlike streaks rising from the nebula below."

That description can be appreciated by someone who is blind or someone who
wants to know more about astronomy or anyone who appreciates the care that
goes into choosing just the right word.

If you don't need alt text to interpret an image, it's easy to look past
that feature. But the conversations that the NASA photos have encouraged are
important, because they show how little it takes to bring more people into
an experience.

<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/they-are-deaf-and-blind-and-social-dis
tancing-has-now-taken-their-ability-to-touch/2020/04/08/de5a9d42-79ae-11ea-9
bee-c5bf9d2e3288_story.html?itid=lk_interstitial_manual_19> They are deaf
and blind, and social distancing has now taken their ability to touch

The team that produced those descriptions works for the Space Telescope
Science Institute out of Baltimore, and they have been paying attention to
the response.

"It's been really heartening to see how much this has touched people," said
Tim Rhue II, the principal informal education specialist at the Space
Telescope Science Institute. "It's something that's deeply personal to so
many people. On top of that, we do it because we want to make astronomy
accessible to everyone. It's astronomy and dinosaurs that are gateways to
science for so many people."

A team that included writers, designers, scientists and educators worked
together to put together the package of images the public saw, and the alt
text was not an afterthought, Rhue said. He said the team had a relatively
short period of time to produce those descriptions. He only saw the photos a
week before the public did. But they had spent the previous two years
discussing accessibility and working with a consulting agency to create an
alt text stylebook. During that process, they practiced writing descriptions
and learned what didn't work.

"I had thought that brevity was a really important thing. That's a common
misconception," Rhue said. He pointed to the saying "a picture is worth a
thousand words" and said the recent images required more words than that to
fully capture them. "There were more than 1,000 words written about each of
those pictures, and we could keep going."

The extended descriptions and alt text for the images can be found by
clicking on the gallery on the
<https://webbtelescope.org/news/first-images/gallery> Webb Space Telescope
website. One alt text begins: "Two views of the same object, the Southern
Ring Nebula, are shown side by side. Both feature black backgrounds speckled
with tiny bright stars and distant galaxies. Both show the planetary nebula
as a misshapen oval that is slightly angled from top left to bottom right."

Rhue said that the team has heard from the public through email, social
media and the website, and that for him, the personal stories have been the
most powerful.

"As a blind person who has had dreams of doing astronomy since I was 6 .
thank you to whoever not only remembered to write alt text for this - but
did so in such a beautiful way," software developer and accessibility
activist Katie Durden
<https://twitter.com/Conundrum9999/status/1547004695138279424> wrote on
Twitter. "I'll likely never know who you are. But you touched my heart this
day, alt-text writer."

After Kelly Lepo tweeted that she was a member of the "small team" at the
Space Telescope Science Institute who created the alt text, Durden shared
that tweet and wrote of having dreamed since childhood of being able to see
the stars.

"Y'all brought me closer to that dream than ever with your alt text," Durden
wrote. "I don't have the words to say thank you."

David Goldfield,

Blindness Assistive Technology Specialist

 <https://www.freedomscientific.com/Training/Certification> 

NVDA Certified Expert <https://certification.nvaccess.org/> 

Subscribe to the Tech-VI announcement list to receive news, events and
information regarding the blindness assistive technology field.

Email: tech-vi+subscribe at groups.io <mailto:tech-vi+subscribe at groups.io> 

www.DavidGoldfield.org <http://www.DavidGoldfield.org> 

_._,_._,_

  _____  

Groups.io Links:

You receive all messages sent to this group. 

View/Reply Online (#2382) <https://groups.io/g/tech-vi/message/2382>  |
Reply To Group
<mailto:tech-vi at groups.io?subject=Re:%20%3D%3FUTF-8%3FB%3FW3RlY2gtdmkgQW5ub3
VuY2UgTGlzdF0gRnJvbSBUaGUgV2FzaGluZ3RvbiBQb3N0OiBUaGUgdW5leHBlY3RlZCBzdGFyIG
9mIE5BU0HigJlzIFdlYmIgaW1hZ2VzIOKAlCB0aGUgYWx0IHRleHQgZGVzY3JpcHRpb25z%3F%3D
>  | Reply To Sender
<mailto:david.goldfield at outlook.com?subject=Private:%20Re:%20%3D%3FUTF-8%3FB
%3FW3RlY2gtdmkgQW5ub3VuY2UgTGlzdF0gRnJvbSBUaGUgV2FzaGluZ3RvbiBQb3N0OiBUaGUgd
W5leHBlY3RlZCBzdGFyIG9mIE5BU0HigJlzIFdlYmIgaW1hZ2VzIOKAlCB0aGUgYWx0IHRleHQgZ
GVzY3JpcHRpb25z%3F%3D>  | Mute This Topic
<https://groups.io/mt/92525425/10054>  | New Topic
<https://groups.io/g/tech-vi/post> 
Your Subscription <https://groups.io/g/tech-vi/editsub/10054>  | Contact
Group Owner <mailto:tech-vi+owner at groups.io>  | Unsubscribe
<https://groups.io/g/tech-vi/leave/10455066/10054/1798362443/xyzzy>
[b.butterfly at comcast.net]

_._,_._,_

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 381 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/nfbwatlk_nfbnet.org/attachments/20220721/06209dec/attachment.png>