Sunday Haha Blind Accessibility Project

December 2, 2024

Dec 08, 2024

You might have noticed the descriptions that now follow each comic in Sunday Haha. Since last summer, we have been working with teens at the Mountain Lakes Public Library in New Jersey to make our comics more accessible to people who have low vision and who are blind.

How can we make comics more accessible?

Sunday Haha includes alt text (a text description that can be read by a screen reader) in all our comics (hover your cursor on any comic to read the alt text). You can learn more about how to write alt text here: https://www.rnib.org.uk/campaign-with-us/alt-text-campaign/how-can-i-write-alt-text/

Who writes the alt text for Sunday Haha?

Teens in the Makerspace program have been working behind the scenes to write better alt text for our comics. Check out Sunday Haha Issues 11-20 to read their alt text. Makerspace Program Director, Mr. Matty, says, “Our goal is to be brief, express the spirit of the comic, and make a kid laugh!”

How can we make alt text better?

While working on the project, we learned that we should place comic descriptions in a visible place where sighted people can also read them and not just in the code of the alt text.

How else can we improve Sunday Haha for people who are blind or have low vision?

image description: Reggie Kid Penguin book cover with a 3d printed Reggie bookmark — *image description:* Reggie Kid Penguin book cover with a 3d printed Reggie bookmark

The Makerspace teens have created 3-D printouts of the comics characters. They also plan to work with elementary students to record narration which will be added to the comics in Sunday Haha–stay tuned for that! They will be presenting their improvements to elementary schoolers who are blind or have low vision to find out if they are effective.

image description: ML Makerspace teens sharing accessible resources at the New Jersey Abacus Bee — *image description:* ML Makerspace teens sharing accessible resources at the New Jersey Abacus Bee

We would like to thank the teens at Mountain Lakes Makerspace for writing excellent comic alt text:

Andreana, Eesha, Grace, Isabel, Jessica, Laura, Lucy, Meaghan, Medha, Myra, Nora and Yasmine

image description: Three ML Makerspace teens are 3d designing accessible resources on a computer. In the background is Reggie, Kid Penguin book.

For more information about Mountain Lakes Makerspace you can email Ian Matty at Ian.Matty@mtnlakes.mainlib.org

Stay silly!

Jen & Mika