@travisNov 4, 2022
Guillem Leon
I have encountered more image descriptions on Mastodon in 24 hours than I have in Twitter in a couple of years. Seriously. I'm not exaggerating.
As a blind person, this means a lot to me. If you read this and you describe your images, thank you so, so, so much on behalf of all of us. If you don't, now you know you'll be helping random Internet strangers make sense of your posts by typing in a few more words than usual.
May 10, 2021 at 11:09pmWeb
Show threadRyoMay 11, 2021
@guilevi Thanks for mentioning this. I have never thought about it how important picture descriptions can be.
I will take care about that in the future for everything I publish.
Show threadoshyMay 11, 2021
@guilevi Yes yes yes! Image descriptions are a blessing!
I've described every image on my account, and Image descriptions are required by rule on RaRu.Re !!
Show threadPolychrome May 11, 2021
@ocean @guilevi I guess that's a positive side for my obsessive tendencies 
Show threadLondon!May 11, 2021
@guilevi I admit 1 in 10 times or so I get lazy about it because I had never knowingly seen anyone on here who used them, but seeing this has kicked my ass into gear and I'll be sure to always do so! Thanks for the reminder!
Show threadGuillem LeonMay 11, 2021
@hammerhead I love reading posts like this one. Thank you!
Show threadMatthias KneissNov 2, 2022
@hammerhead what @guilevi says. I feel exactly the same.
Show threadSilentiumMay 11, 2021
@guilevi In addition, people can follow @PleaseCaption (and let the bot follow them back) to get a reminder if they post an image without description.
Show threadHachiko from Birdsite 🏳️‍⚧️Nov 7, 2022
@silentium @guilevi @PleaseCaption Thank you for sharing this.
Show threadmrpieceofworkNov 7, 2022

@silentium @guilevi @[email protected]

Just testing... the bot hasn't been very responsive as of late...
BTW, since I cannot ALT in this web-client, here it is: this is an image of two... no... ONE piebald cat, in TWO places at once... a Quantum Entangled Cat, if you will LOL. (Seriously though, 2 VERY similar looking black and white cats, on the side of a street in Japan, looking in the direction of the camera)

Show threadtreedNov 8, 2022
@silentium @guilevi @PleaseCaption If you use Toot on iOS, it has a setting that will prevent you from posting pictures without a description. It’s a nice touch.
Show threadEric LawtonApr 16, 2023

@silentium

@guilevi

I use the fediverse client and it prompts me if I forget to add a description or if I boost a post with an image without one, which I find more useful than a reminder after.

Show threadAlsoPaisleyCat 🇨🇦Nov 29
@silentium @guilevi @PleaseCaption
The hashtag #Alt4Me also to reach helpful folk who will step in to provide AltText.
Show threadEfi (nap pet) 🦊💤May 11, 2021
@guilevi if I could get some text to speech software working I could help even more
Show threadGuillem LeonMay 11, 2021
@efi TTS won't help you much here. It does what it says on the tin, it reads out text. What you write is what we hear. :)
Show threadEfi (nap pet) 🦊💤May 11, 2021
@guilevi I could make it so there's aria hints for different parts of the site, better timings and intonation, right now toots have a single aria tag iirc
Show threadGuillem LeonMay 11, 2021
@efi There's no way to directly affect most screenreaders universally. Most of the time we just want our text read concisely and as is. I can definitely try to help you set up some accessibility software for testing, though it's likely that your OS has some built in.
Show threadJoão PinheiroMay 11, 2021
And this short post has made me understand much better the need for an image description than many other attempts I have come across many times. Sometimes it's hard for those that don't have the problem to understand it, specially if people, instead of asking politely and explaining things, reply harshly as if you're the worst person in the world because you didn't write a description. Thank you!
Show threadRandom SongbirdMay 11, 2021
@guilevi I remember when I first got here how freaking blown away I was by that. It was such a weird novelty. But I’ve been here awhile now. Just wait, you’ll get so used to it in time you won’t blink anymore. It’s wild.
Show threadutsuhoMay 11, 2021
@guilevi for this reason i find it more comfortable to browse mastodon over twitter
Show threadMajor Dog 🏳️‍🌈May 11, 2021
@guilevi Glad I am able to help. Do you have any tips or comments regarding image descriptions? like what is something people often forget to describe or describe inadequately?
Show threadGuillem LeonMay 11, 2021
@CanisMajoris There's no right or wrong way to do it really. It's all dependent on context. If you want people to absorb every detail, write detailed descriptions. If the point of the image in the context of the toot can be made clear with a concise one-liner, that's completely fine as well.
Show threadVhalesa✨May 11, 2021
@guilevi For some of my comics instead of a image description I wrote it into a written version of the story. Is this a thing more people do? Because I think that's more enjoyable to read? But may be a bit long since the word limit for image descriptions is quite long, haha.
Show threadWolfgangMay 11, 2021
@guilevi and the pro aspect of image descriptions, you can add additional information over the default 500 character limit of mastodon ;-)
Show threadioMay 22, 2021
@vilbi @guilevi it's also often pretty easy to describe an image without explaining the joke, using objective instead of subjective descriptions, or by being slightly vague, for example
Show threadioMay 22, 2021
@vilbi @guilevi meant to ping @lienrag too
Show thread…ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ jesuisatire bitPickupNov 12, 2022
@vilbi @guilevi

yeah but that's a mastodon argument tho.
Over here that doesn't matter at all.
As some kinda hidden message in any case sounds interesting!
Could lead to terribly confusing conversations! 😀

@hypolite
Image descriptions on friendica?
HowTo?
and HowTo display the existing ones?
Show threadSabrina Web  📎May 11, 2021
@guilevi I don't post many images, but when I do I always try to add a description. I never did it on the birdsite, I admit. I didn't even know it could be done
Show threadGuillem LeonMay 11, 2021
@sabrinaweb71 Thank you! Yeah, it's been a feature for a while, but many more people use it here than there.