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Noncommercial Images

Noncommercial images are images that are open for the public to use, whether it is on their website, or their blog, or just in general. It’s easy to find an image on the internet, but you need to know how to find an image that is available for you to use. There are multiple ways to do this but many find that there are two easy ways. First, there is the Google Images way:

  1. Go to Google images and type your search term into the search bar. Press Enter.
  2. A Google Images search for inclusion.
  3. You will find many images that relate to your search term, but these images may have licenses. To find ones that don’t, go to the ‘search tools’ button, which is right below the search bar.
  4. Search tools underneath the search bar show up as well as images for inclusion
        underneath
  5. It will automatically be set to ‘Not filtered by license’. There are also many other options that come with it. For one that means you may use it for whatever purpose, click “Labeled for reuse" Then you may find an image that suits your needs
  6. Search tool is selected on labeled for reuse with it's images are underneath

The second method is searching through Flickr:

  1. Go to Flickr main page
  2. Flickr main page showing a search bar, a log in and sign up button, and an
        inspirational background picture
  3. Search in the toolbar for your desired image
  4. A search for images of inclusion with images about inclusion underneath
  5. Click on the “Any license” option near the top left of the screen and a list will appear of the different image licenses
  6. A list of all the different licenses you can choose
  7. Select the “No known copyright restriction” option and the list of non commercial images for you to use legally will appear.
  8. A search for inclusion with a 'no copyright restriction' license and images for it underneath.

Inclusive Document

To make a document more inclusive, you can follow the IDRC ADOD guide, which will make your document much more user friendly and accessible. This ADOD guide shows and provides you with pretty much all the different types of documents and tips on how they can be much more inclusive and accessible for the users. What it means to make a document more user friendly is making it more engaging, appealing, and well structured for the user to better navigate and catch the attention of the user. What it means to make a document more accessible is making it in a way that as much people as possible can access and understand your document, examples of this is a alternative text option and making content more easy to understand.

Alternative text

An alternative text is a description of the image detailing and giving a literal definition of what pictures and images are showing and portraying so that people who are visually impaired can understand them and if the image fails to load for the user.

To give an alternative text description of images:

  1. You have to first look at what the image is trying to portray to you.
  2. Give a literal and an as detailed as you can description for the image using the most appropriate and least amount of words you can.
  3. By looking at the alternative text description you should be able to visualize what the image may look like and maybe the message that it is trying to give to you.

Here are some examples of non commercial images with alternative text;

A group of black figures with their hands raised.
A group of black figures with their hands raised.
A man wearing a Cambridge simulation glove and holding a phone.
A man wearing a Cambridge simulation glove and holding a phone.
A FLOE (Flexible Learning for Open Education) concept design mind map, that is describing the different ideas, tools, and parts which work together to create an inclusive environment for the user to use.
A FLOE (Flexible Learning for Open Education) concept design mind map, that is describing the different ideas, tools, and parts which work together to create an inclusive environment for the user to use.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons (sometimes referred to as CC) is a non-for-profit organization that helps people find content legally, and issues CC licenses for free. A CC license enables the free distribution of content that would otherwise be illegal.

What is a CC license?

As mentioned above, A CC (Creative Commons) license is a public copyright license that gives a range of different rights for people to reuse the image, depending on the license.

How to use a CC license

The way to apply a CC license varies on what kind of project you are applying it to. For example, the CC license for online material is different from the license for third-party platforms, which is different from the one for offline material. First, we will show how to add an online material license. To apply a license for online material;

  1. Choose your License.In the ‘License Features’ box, check all the boxes that apply. Then when you are done that, look in the ‘Selected Licence’ box, and the subtitle will read what kind of license you have chosen.
  2. Follow the Instructions and copy the HTML code into your webpage

To apply a license for offline material;

  1. As mentioned in the first step, you will have to Choose your License, then mark your work with the following text: “This work is licensed under the Creative Commons [insert description] License. To view a copy of the license, visit [insert url]”

Finally, to add a license for third-party platforms. Many media platforms (such as Flickr, YouTube, SoundCloud) have built-in Creative Commons capabilities, letting users mark their material with a CC license through their account settings. If it does not, you may copy-paste the same steps as listed above into the text description of your media.

How to find if others have used a CC license

They should have followed the same steps as listed above. If the resource is an online or offline document, it should be on the footer of the page (if it is not located there, you may have to contact the owner to ask about their Creative Commons site). If it is for a third-party platform, you shouldn’t have to worry, as most media platforms have a built-in Creative Commons license.

Creative Commons logo.