I make stuff online, but mostly I help other people make stuff better online - more customer-oriented, more brand-appropriate, more accessible and more polished, among other things.
Location
Central Pennsylvania
Education
BS in Mathematics; will graduate Spring 2019 with a master's in homeland security/biodefense
Work
Joan of all trades at Penn State; Technical Penguins
I use the same decision tree about color as I do age, gender and ethnicity: Is the image important because of one of those factors?
The comment about the red lake is a good example of that. We're showing the image because the lake is red and that's the notable thing we're trying to depict.
On a page for our university about diversity, we describe "A group of students from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds." It isn't relevant that there is one brown-skinned student, one student who appears to be Asian, etc. - not to mention those are "guesses" that could be wrong. The idea is we're illustrating a diverse student body.
Same with ages: An elderly woman looks at a young child matters if the content is about the effects of spending time with grandchildren on the health of older people; if it's just a story about Christmas traditions, the age may not be relevant.
And, because I have to throw it in anywhere I can: If nothing about your image matters, don't use the image. Design for design's sake is annoying whether you use assistive technology or not.
I use the same decision tree about color as I do age, gender and ethnicity: Is the image important because of one of those factors?
The comment about the red lake is a good example of that. We're showing the image because the lake is red and that's the notable thing we're trying to depict.
On a page for our university about diversity, we describe "A group of students from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds." It isn't relevant that there is one brown-skinned student, one student who appears to be Asian, etc. - not to mention those are "guesses" that could be wrong. The idea is we're illustrating a diverse student body.
Same with ages: An elderly woman looks at a young child matters if the content is about the effects of spending time with grandchildren on the health of older people; if it's just a story about Christmas traditions, the age may not be relevant.
And, because I have to throw it in anywhere I can: If nothing about your image matters, don't use the image. Design for design's sake is annoying whether you use assistive technology or not.
Thank you so much for your answer. Treating it like a decision tree really helps, and I really appreciate the examples you give!