Developed by The DIAGRAM Center, the Poet image description tool is an open-source, web-based tool for creating and providing guidelines to writing image descriptions for images in existing DAISY and EPUB books. With Poet, it is possible to crowd source the creation of image descriptions, which can reduce both the cost for content creators and delivery time for end-users.
Easy, Intuitive User Interface
Using Poet is easy. Take any DAISY 3 or EPUB3 book file and upload it to Poet. Then, follow simple steps to write a description for each image. The descriptions will then be available to assistive technology for voicing whenever the next reader downloads the file. See this two-minute introductory video that shows you just how easy Poet is to use.
Special Features
Math Editor (beta) – transcribes math into a machine-readable format (MathML or text description). For more information about accessible math, see the DIAGRAM webinars on tools and techniques for making math accessible. You may also be interested in Benetech’s MathML Cloud project.
Image Description Training Module– reference guides and hands-on practices to help cultivate skills for writing image descriptions. The module is available from a drop-down menu in Poet and provides guidance for common types of complex images such as flow charts and Venn diagrams, following an expanded list of NCAM guidelines. For each one, you will see an example, description guidelines, and even a template (if it applies).
Image Coverage Checker (click here for this stand-alone tool) – generates a report that summarizes the images in a given file that already have descriptions. This is a great tool for quick assessment of how much time might be required to provide image descriptions in a given book and where the descriptions can be found in a file. This free web-based tool can be used on any DAISY 3 or EPUB3 file.
DIAGRAM Webinars on best practices for creating accessible images.
The DIAGRAM Center is a Benetech initiative supported by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (Cooperative Agreement #H327B100001). Opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of the U.S. Department of Education.
