Translating the Visual:
Poetic Alt Text, A MMSt Capstone Project

An ICCA × University of Toronto Student Capstone Initiative

About the Project

Translating the Visual: Poetic Alt Text, A MMSt Capstone Project redefines website alt-text from purely functional visual descriptions into a creative curatorial medium. By blending poetic, artist-informed language with core accessibility standards, this initiative enhances visual accessibility while adding an interpretive layer to online artwork galleries. Through a curated collection of alt-texts and an accompanying curatorial statement, the project reimagines how online collections are experienced, inviting deeper engagement for blind, low-vision, and sighted audiences alike.

 Alt-text is too often treated as a checkbox of technical compliance rather than a site of creative possibility. Translating the Visual challenges this boundary—reimagining image description as an essential, artful act of curation that expands access, honors artistic intent, and deepens how we experience art online.

Project Origins

The initiative grew out of an Accessible Communications Workshop hosted by Tangled Art+Disability on December 14, 2021. Archives from past ICCA staff highlight a key takeaway from that session: the potential to approach image description not merely as a requirement, but as a collaborative, creative process—a concept championed by projects such as Alt-Text as Poetry. Inspired by Tangled Art+Disability’s focus on access intimacy, crip time, and collaborative art description (including foreground-to-background spatial mapping and artist-informed sensory details), this capstone translates those foundational principles into practical, public-facing museum practice.

The Team

“I hope to find approaches to make alt-text feel more natural to implement as part of a broader practice of accessibility in creative spaces. I think this is an important step in the move towards inclusion for everyone, but can hopefully also be of use to Indigenous artists and curators as one of many tools to represent themselves on their own terms.” – Anneka

Anneka Jin received a BFA in Film Studies from Concordia University and is pursuing a joint master’s degree in Museum Studies and Library and Information Science at the University of Toronto, where she was the recipient of a Faculty of Information Fellowship. She currently works in public service at Toronto Public Library and recently completed a digitization and cataloguing internship at Stephen Bulger Gallery. She has done arts programming work for Toronto School of Art, Concordia Film Festival, and the Concordia Undergraduate Journal of Art History, and her photographs have been exhibited at the Albright Knox (AKG) Art Museum

Image description: Anneka, a woman in her twenties with light skin, dark brown wavy hair, and almond-shaped brown eyes, stands in front of a white wall. She wears a structured black funnel neck blouse and bold oval-rimmed black glasses.

“I’m excited to connect my current practices of community building and programming to an online sphere in order to make accessing artwork and community-based programs a meaningful experience. This is extremely important to me because everyone deserves access to their community and to feel empowered when creating art.” – Alex

Alexandra Goreham is an emerging Métis museum educator from Alberta and is a member of the Métis Region 3, District 5 community, but is in Toronto studying museum studies at the University of Toronto. She graduated from the University of Calgary in 2025 with a Bachelor of Arts in History and a Bachelor of Education, Honours, specializing in Secondary Social Studies. During her undergraduate career, her research focused on how social groups, specifically minority communities, influenced politics, economics, and decisions related to conflict and how, in turn, these decisions affected identity formation throughout history. This research focused heavily on neglected histories using archival documents, artworks, and film. Professionally, Alexandra has worked on a Michif Language Revitalization project that located academic and community resources and placed them in an accessible database for educators. She has also worked as a Youth Program Facilitator, delivering programs to camps and groups ages 5-12, with a focus on accessibility and land-based learning in STEM and art-based activities. Over the summer, she was a summer student at the Hangar Flight Museum and worked on a series of projects highlighting overlooked stories in Canadian aviation, including women and Indigenous aviation figures. This included conducting research and creating a brochure for visitors that detailed how traditional knowledge in the Canadian prairies has influenced flight and advances in aviation technology, while providing access to local learning resources.  

Image description: Alexandra Goreham, a museum studies student at the University of Toronto, wearing a top with floral embroidery and smiling at a camera while standing in front of a grey background. 

 “I hope to provide the ICCA with an alt-text framework that translates the visual poetically to promote accessibility and a deeper understanding of their platform, meaningfully impacting their visitor’s website experience for years into the future. My curatorial practice is inseparable from accessible description and interpretation, as it’s rooted in anti-oppressive values of inclusion, equity, and community empowerment.” – Erica

Erica de Souza is a master’s candidate studying Library and Information Sciences, and Museum Studies at the University of Toronto (UofT) with over 5 years of experience in research methods, and qualitative analysis. Erica completed her Honours Bachelor of Arts at UofT in Anthropology and Indigenous Studies, with a minor in Material Culture & Semiotics, and has over 10 years of experience in the public sector in Early Childhood Education. Since 2020, she has worked as a Research Assistant for the Indigenous Action Group (IAG) which focuses on Indigenous education and awareness, and runs the course, Anthropology and the Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island (in Canada) (ANT241H), at the Mississauga campus. Her role has been data management and analysis of student learning (personal, professional, and academic) for this post-secondary course, as they learn with Indigenous Scholars and Elders in a community-engaged learning (CEL) setting. The common themes of her research are anti-colonialism, anti-oppressive practice, and accessibility. She aspires to curate exhibits and digital spaces that increase accessibility, and centers multiple ways of knowing and Indigenous languages. Recently, she completed developing interpretive content at the Toronto Zoo as an intern, focused on conservation and climate actions that support many different species, such as river hippos. Her work also included initial content development of the Toronto Zoo’s first sensory garden in English and Braille. 

Image description: Erica de Souza, a graduate student at the University of Toronto Faculty of Information, gazes into the distance of a park while crossing her arms. 

“I am thrilled to be part of a team and an organization that is actively trying to advocate for accessibility in art spaces. I hope I can contribute to a resource that can amplify accessibility beyond standards and develop new equitable curatorial practices.” – Rana

Rana Gahwagy is a Saudi emerging museum professional and a current Master of Museum Studies Student at University of Toronto. She holds a master’s of Earth Sciences from King Abdullah University for Science Technology in Saudi Arabia, and a bachelor’s of Environmental Geosciences and Data Science from Smith College in Massachusetts. She has seven years of interdisciplinary research experience analyzing the Anthropocene from various perspectives such as paleoclimatology, climate modeling, remote sensing, and natural heritage. Her research interests lie at the intersection of museums, climate, and accessibility. Through her work in GLAM, she aims to use data-driven storytelling to connect the public to science and nature and advance sustainable and accessible museum practices. Most recently, Rana completed visitor research projects with various institutions such as the Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto Zoo, and Royal Ontario Museum evaluating visitors’ experience and accessibility. Currently, Rana serves as the treasurer for Museum Professionals of Color at the University of Toronto. Having experiences across different cultural and geographic contexts, she is interested in exploring how museums can become more inclusive of diverse voices.

Image description: Headshot of Rana Gahwagy wearing glasses and a black blouse in front of blurry trees and buildings.

Partner

Thank you University of Toronto Mississauga for partnering with ICCA to provide this programming.