Why I Removed GIFs From My E-Learning Instructional Design Portfolio

Earlier this year, I conducted an accessibility audit on my own instructional design portfolio. I initially created the online content a few years ago, and like many people, I thought the inclusion of Graphics Interchange Format (GIF)s would be fun and engaging for visitors.

However, when I revisited the portfolio with an accessibility lens, I had multiple concerns about the GIFs.

Accessibility Concerns:

1.   No alternative text. I did not include alternative text (alt text) and image descriptions for the GIFs even though they are non-text content.

2.   No alternate way for learners or viewers to access this visual content.  For example, I could have considered an option for audio narration.

3.   Auto play that was hard to pause! The GIFs were on auto play and did not stop after five seconds. If I moused over the GIF, I could find a pause button. However, even with multiple keyboard strategies, I was not able to access the pause button using only keyboard navigation.

Design Decisions:

These particular GIFs served more as entertainment versus instructional, so I first needed to consider whether they were necessary and added any value to the portfolio.

In this case, I decided they did not have enough value to balance the accessibility concerns and removed them.

If I had decided the GIFs added value for learners or viewers, then I would have added alternative text, improved user controls, and included alternate ways for visitors to access the content.

What would you have done? Leave them in or take them out?

If you’d like to learn more about my accessibility audits, please get in touch through the RPH contact form. I look forward to discussing your project!

I’d love to hear from you!

• Have you ever audited your own work?

• What were you looking for and what did you find?

• If and how did you fix the problems you identified?

Please share in the comments.