smallcreature

slowly recovering from birdsite

autistic queerthing from france. kitty fighting the puppy allegations. Asks welcome!

Icon: Komugi from Wonderful Precure
Header: Whisper of the Heart



aetataureate
@aetataureate
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aetataureate
@aetataureate
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eladnarra
@eladnarra

Yeah, while there are definitely cases where certain disabilities make writing alt text hard (see the end of the post for my ideas about this!), I'm guessing most folks not writing alt text aren't in this group.

So for everyone who can, I wanted to share a few tips if folks are unsure how to get started (with the caveat that I am not a screen reader user - please correct me if I'm wrong on any of this!).


aetataureate
@aetataureate
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in reply to @aetataureate's post:

in reply to @aetataureate's post:

i'm not sure what you're saying -- captions and alt text are the same thing here. just describing what's in the image is good! who's in it, what do they look like, where are they? stuff like that.

Well i think of alt-text specifically as metadata tied to the image in general, vs., say, post tags or the title or the text contents of a post.

As in the text accompanying the post is "Tiny has presented me with a piece of plastic from a snack container. In a moment she will meow at me to throw it down the hall so she can chase it", where there isn't anything else that I would think could usefully describe the image

ok! post tags and content aren't relevant to the accessibility of images and their captions/alt tags. folks who are using assistive technology or pulling up images are looking for that text in the expected place. but it sounds like you could just copy and paste your caption text into the alt text area and solve both things!

yes, ideally someone puts alt text where alt text is supposed to go! that way it shows up the right way when the image is clicked on and expanded, etc. (not everyone who relies on it is using a screen reader, either.)

Went back and captioned what I posted today; it's really tough to get that small box typed in properly when phone posting and I get lazy about it. Thanks for the reminder to do better.

in reply to @eladnarra's post:

Thank you so much for these tips, my resolution for 2023 has been to try to remember to up my alt text game but I always feel unsure about what should go in! Having a set of guidelines to point me in the right direction is super appreciated 🙏

You're welcome!

Yeah, I do wonder what platforms like Cohost could do - not to just make the process of adding it easier, but to make it easier for people to get into the habit, or even just know what alt text is (and isn't) for...

I’ve seen some clients for other platforms prevent you from posting until you add alt text (blessedly an opt-in toggle) but I have to wonder if that’s only effective when it functions as a reminder. If it were default I could see it leading to extensive “joke” alt text which isn’t what we want.

Would you mind if I linked to your post elsewhere? I really appreciate how clearly you explain it and I’m sure others would too!

Ah yeah, that sort of feature is great once you've made the decision to write alt text, but I can definitely see joke (or random) alt text appearing more as a result.

And no, I wouldn't mind! Please feel free to share. :host-joy: