11. Read Documents, Forms and Screenshots

Part Three: Understand Images and Visual Information

Recover exact text, reading order and structure without hiding uncertainty.

Estimated time: 10 minutes. Last reviewed: 11 August 2026.

What you need to know

This page stands alone. No previous AI knowledge is required. You need access to an AI assistant only for the activity.

Learning outcome: By the end, you will request transcription, structure and uncertainty as separate outputs.

Before you begin: Use an authoritative source or human verification for consequential figures and official documents.

The lesson

Ask for verbatim text before a summary.

Request headings, labels, fields, checked states and reading order.

Exact characters matter: prices, dates, doses, reference numbers and telephone numbers deserve special checking.

Use three passes

Transcription: read every visible character exactly as it appears.
Structure: identify headings, sections, columns, fields, selected states and reading order.
Uncertainty: list every character, word or field that is unclear, cropped, handwritten or partly obscured.

Do not silently repair the document

A plausible correction can conceal an error. Ask the system to mark uncertainty explicitly rather than guessing. Compare conversational output with a dedicated recognition mode when exact text matters.

Try it

Use a non-sensitive document image. Ask for exact text, then a structural outline, then a list of uncertain characters or fields.

Checkpoint

You can reconstruct the document without silently treating uncertain text as exact.

Previous: 10. Judge and Verify an Image Description
Course contents
Next: 12. Understand Tables, Charts and Slides

About this course

Confident with AI was created by Charli-Jo Tyrer in association with the Technology Association of Visually Impaired People (TAVIP).

Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.