[LINK] Academic Comics Accessible?

[Chris J ANU]

Tom Worthington wrote

Helen Kara has written an academic journal article in comic form. While 
> innovative, the text is part of the image it is not searchable, nor can 
> it be turned into synthetic speech for someone who is blind. How can 
> alternate text be provided for such an article? Do academic ethics 
> require this? Does the law require it? Who's responsibility is it: the 
> publisher, the author, or both? 
> https://helenkara.com/2021/06/10/4560/comment-page-1/#comment-15872
If the publisher is responsible (as I think they should be) then they may well ask or require the author to provide this alternative content. It should be plain in the author’s contractual obligation to provide alt text for all illustrations, as it may be to provide searchable content, not merely ‘camera ready’ images of the text content as might appear to provide a form of human readable content.
I like the published paper myself for its content and presentation in graphic form, as I can read it, but I agree it should be accompanied by machine readable/ speakable/ searchable/ indexable forms.
Chris Johnson
Hon AsPro 
ANU Research School of Computing