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Fill in the Blanks, Get Better Alt Text for Your Images
Published about 17 hours ago • 3 min read
Issue #29 • 01 Sepember 2026
Hi Reader.
This summer, Pedal Point hosted another intern through the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, and it's given me a lot to reflect on. Longtime readers might remember DeAnn Elliott, who came through that same program last year. DeAnn already had her Insite Access agency up and running before her internship with me, but the two of us ended up helping each other grow our respective practices and forming a wonderful friendship that has long outlasted the internship itself.
This year's intern is Zach, and he's spent the summer helping the Disabled Stories Collective (or DISCO) get its digital house in order. DISCO is run as a volunteer effort, which means the parts of it that aren't storytelling itself (the website, the social channels, the email list) tend to sit at the bottom of the to-do pile. Zach changed that. He's been building out our site architecture and laying the groundwork for a proper email newsletter, with a social media presence next on his list, so DISCO can reach more people more frequently.
Simon, Zach, and Garin (DISCO's executive director) enjoyed attending the MCB Summer Internship Closing Ceremony at the Massachusetts State House.
What strikes me most with both Zach and DeAnn is how much capability goes untapped. Disabled people face unemployment and underemployment rates far higher than their nondisabled peers, not for lack of skill but for lack of access to opportunity. Programs like MCB's internship close that gap in a real way, and the payoff runs in both directions. DISCO gets important digital infrastructure. Zach gets project experience and a portfolio piece. It's a win-win for everyone, with advocacy and disability employment benefiting from one another.
I'll have more to share about DISCO's new site and newsletter as they come together this fall. For now, I'm grateful for a motivated intern and how much he has built in a few short months.
What are some ways you can involve people from the disability community in the work you do?
Guided alt text generation: fill in the blank, get alt text that actually works
A follow-up to my Venn diagram framework for alt text, this post hands you a fill-in-the-blank AI prompt built around three simple prepositions. No design background required, no more staring at a blank alt text field wondering what to type. Just fill in the blanks to get richer and more relevant image descriptions.
Mark your calendar: October 7 and 8 is WordPress Accessibility Day 2026, and I'll be one of this year's speakers. My session, "AI, Accessibility, and WordPress: Deciding What to Trust, Test, and Do Yourself," walks through where AI tools actually help accessibility work in WordPress and where a human still needs to step in.
This free, 24-hour livestream is organized entirely by volunteers from the WordPress accessibility community and built for developers, designers, content creators, and everyday WordPress users alike. The full speaker lineup is still rolling out, and it's pre-approved for IAAP continuing education credits. Get on the event's email list now so you catch registration and the full schedule the moment they're announced.
Adrian tackles a deceptively simple question: should a dialog close when someone clicks outside it? He sorts the answer into three buckets, one of which covers drawers, sheets, and other UI patterns quietly pretending to be dialogs. His answer isn't a flat yes or no, and the reasoning behind it is worth walking through before your next component decision.
It started with one professor manually converting handwritten math notes for a single student, because handwritten equations are typically invisible or garbled to a screen reader. That workaround has since grown into ink2html, a full enterprise tool now available to instructors across Purdue's campuses. Here's how a scrappy one-off became something a whole university could use.
Ever paused on "12:00 pm" and had to think for a second about whether that means noon or midnight? You're not alone, and it's not just an annoyance, it's an accessibility problem. This piece breaks down the small formatting habits (colons, dashes, capitalization, and more) that quietly make times harder to read, and gives you a simple standard to apply everywhere.
Have a stellar September!
Simon Miner Pedal Point Solutions
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Web designers, developers, and content creators, get the latest in web accessibility news, tools, and techniques delivered to your inbox to help make your websites accessible and inclusive to visitors with disabilities.
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