disclaimer: I have a fairly significant background in web design/coding as someone who doesn't do that for a living, and have studied the accessibility guidelines alongside that. i am not an accessibility expert, nor am i a screen-reader user.

"alt text is easy" is something i've seen a lot, coming from people who are frustrated by not having their needs met (or the needs of the folks around them) which is absolutely understandable. but it's not always easy, especially when you're like me and having that extra step before posting means you'll just not post at all. or, maybe, you're looking at a complex piece of art you've just finished and want to share with the world and you're thinking- where do i even start with this? In the spirit of making this easy to digest, i'll share my tips first and explain them with examples under a readmore.

1. Consider the alt text part of your post. It is complementary to whatever else your post is about
2. Don't forget someone has to read it. Front-load important information so they don't waste their time going through minutiae.
3. Don't try to recreate the piece in words- recreate the feel of the piece. Keep in mind why you're posting it in the first place.
4. Something is always better than nothing. Nobody is going to crucify you for alt text that's lacking, but it's shitty to just leave it blank.
5. Don't "come back and add it later." (you won't). If you can't post now with alt text, save it for later. (yeah there are tags to get people to help with alt text, but be honest with yourself if you'll actually go through with updating)

it does kinda just come down to "just do it" but click through if you want more information (probably too much more)

some of the guiding principles here are as follows:

• i am NOT a writer. trying to find the perfect way to tell the story of a random sketch of mine is never ever going to be on the same level as the actual piece.

the goal here is NOT to get the person reading the alt text to imagine the piece in their head exactly and doing so is not only a lost cause, it's got extremely diminishing returns the longer it goes on. Something that really solidified this idea for me was reading this article on accessibility and the concept of inclusion that @lori had shared ages ago. one of the most salient points from that article is this idea that a lot of accessibility concerns assume that Blind/DeafBlind people are interested in having a similar experience, when in reality they're pretty well aware that there are other things that are far more interesting than someone's interpretation of a purely visual work. why would someone sit through 5 minutes of spoken alt text describing every single detail in a painting as it is filtered through someone else's perception when they could be doing OTHER things.

hell, i wouldn't do that. i'd move onto a different post that actually works in text form.

• your audience isn't just you, it's real people who deserve respect.

one of the things that article makes clear, however, is that people DO notice when you don't think about them at all- i.e. if you leave out alt text when it should have been included. which, again, i absolutely cannot blame them for being mad about. i can't imagine how frustrating it'd be to see people sharing an image with no text context and no alt text over and over again- not knowing if it's a meme, a picture of a cat, or some horrible atrocity caught on camera.

think about your audience. describe your image like you would to a friend or like there was someone in front of you. that's what i mean when i say the alt text is part of the post. for screen reader users, it IS. put in anything that seems important for the understanding of the post as a whole, and leave out details that don't really matter.

for the purposes of this post, i'm only tackling art- not memes/reaction images, and not "decorative elements" (that don't need alt text).

Example 1:

for me, what is important to note about this piece is that it's a character token portrait and it's got a bust of an anthropomorphized chicken character. the alt text i went with was:

a character portrait of a black chicken anthro with iridescent feathers and a startling yellow eye

i picked out two other details for some flavor- the iridescent feathers, and the eye- so it's not totally bland, and because those i think would be things you'd notice as a sighted user. could i have mentioned the grainy/rough texture of the brush, or that the background is a dark teal oval on black? sure, but does that actually add much to the interpretation of the work? i don't really think so. neither do i think getting into the weeds about the character's details- a big comb draped over her other eye, a serrated beak, the scales on her arms and front- would be particularly productive.

Example 2:

The alt text reads:

a sketch of a buff orc lady nonchalantly dangling a small human lady by holding her upside down by her foot.

for me what's important was just what's happening, and the mood it gives. Iv, the orc lady, is strong enough that holding up another person by the ankle is no big deal. it's meant to be funny first and foremost, and the fact that one is an orc and one is a human and they're both women is important because this post is highlighting part of their (gay) relationship.

This was paired with this sketch:

a sketch of the same two characters. this time the orc lady has pinned the human lady by her wrists and is straddling her. meanwhile the human lady seems to be lounging underneath her, legs crossed casually.

these images are related to each other, which is important to mention if you have multiple pieces in the same post- noting what is the same between images in a multiple-image set can also save space/time. the post as a whole, and the reason i made these sketches, is to flesh out the two characters' dynamic, so details that support that are important to me to include.

there are more examples i could give- stuff with text in it (usually include the text), stuff with multiple different images compiled into the same image, etc- but i'm kinda running out of steam with this post right now. hopefully if you had zero ideas at the start, you'll have more now.

if you have any questions/comments/concerns, feel free to share in the comments. if there's enough appetite, i could do a part two/addendum to cover questions or other scenarios.

keep it swaggy y'all, write your alt text.