JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services has introduced new tools and workflows to support alt text for image-based materials across digital collections. With this release, Tier 2 and Tier 3 participants in JSTOR Stewardship can author, edit, export, and publish alt text on JSTOR. Tier 3 charter participants can also use JSTOR Seeklight to generate draft alt text for individual items or in bulk.

Alt text gives people who cannot perceive images access to information conveyed visually, and is a key part of meeting the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) for non-text content. For libraries, archives, and cultural heritage institutions managing large image collections, creating meaningful descriptions item by item can be difficult to scale. These new tools and workflows build on JSTOR’s commitment to accessibility and Stewardship’s accessible-by-design foundation by bringing support for WCAG-aligned alt text into the platform that institutions already use to manage and share their collections.

JSTOR Seeklight-generated alt text is designed as a starting point for expert review. Staff can refine generated descriptions, and built-in indicators of uncertainty and flags for images containing people help identify cases where collection context, institutional practices, or professional judgment may be especially important.

“Alt text is essential for making image-based collections more accessible, and this release represents a meaningful step forward in how JSTOR Stewardship supports that work,” said Roger Schonfeld, Managing Director of JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services. “JSTOR Seeklight began with metadata generation, but our vision has always been much bigger. With transcripts for text-based materials and now alt text for images, we’re helping institutions advance both discoverability and accessibility, while keeping expert review and collection context at the center.”

Librarians, archivists, accessibility practitioners, and other digital collections professionals helped shape the capability through research, testing, and feedback. This work continues JSTOR Seeklight’s community-informed approach to AI-assisted collections processing.

For more about how JSTOR Stewardship approaches alt text, visit our blog. Institutions interested in strengthening the accessibility of their digital collections can learn more about JSTOR Stewardship, including the Tier 3 charter program.