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Guidelines for Describing STEM Images
Several significant themes emerged in our research and have resulted in the following guidelines. Please refer to the examples included in this website for guidance in applying these guidelines to specific types of STEM images.
1. Brevity
The most frequent recommendation from respondents was for more brevity in description. Simply put, it takes people with visual impairments more time to read books and articles than people without visual impairments and the process should not be further slowed down by unnecessarily long image descriptions.
Many images may be rich in visual details but light on important information. If the gist of an image can be understood in a glance, then the description should be just as brief.
Likewise, if the information in an image also included in the main text and therefore accessible, then the image description should not repeat the information.
When an image does contain important information, the description should provide access to the information in as few words as possible.
2. Data
Description should focus on the data and not extraneous visual elements. Elaborately illustrated diagrams, for example, often contain [...]