As long as the topic of image description has your attention, I'd like to try & reproduce on Mastodon something I & several other volunteers organized on Twitter. It’s 2 hashtags to assist with image description.

The first is #ALT4me — blind & visually impaired individuals can reply to an image that lacks ALT text with this tag, so that sighted volunteers can then reply with a description. The strength of crowdsourcing this is that each person adds unique details from their own perspective, that when combined, form a detailed & meaningful conception of the image. It also allows one person to give a quick triage description, & then others can fill in details as they see fit.

The 2nd is #ALT4you — if you come across an image that is particularly striking, or one that you believe will quickly become iconic & part of a shared visual imagery/memory, please describe that image & tag it with this tag. This is particularly important during unfolding news stories that quickly break & change, leaving behind indelible visual impressions, that then shape most peoples memory & consciousness of the event. Obviously, for the blind/VI, without a description, search images, no matter how important, remain perceptual and informational black holes.

Thank you all again for the outstanding image description I have encountered so consistently in my limited experience on Mastodon.

@imagecaptionspls @Superfreq @miripiri @PleaseCaption

My approach would be to contact the original poster, informing them of the need for alt & how easy Mastodon makes it to add, before boosting. At the same time, you can explain that your next reply will be a description, added to provide the blind/VI with an equivalent experience of the original toot.

It is up to you whether you simply want to reply in plain text and describe the image in the body of a reply, or if you want to illustrate to the person who failed to use alt text the proper use of alt text, you could re-post it as an image with alt added.

I hope this answers your question.

@oedipusnj @imagecaptionspls @Superfreq @miripiri @PleaseCaption

I would also keep in mind the fact that some disabled people /can't/ write image descriptions. I personally can write short, quick ones or transcribe text, but only when I have enough spoons (energy, basically).

It's SO important to respond to no-alt-text posts with compassion and care. No one should have to disclose a disability to avoid being shamed for something they may not be able to do.

Just reply with alt text if you can.

@PleaseCaption @biasto_bias @miripiri @imagecaptionspls @Superfreq I wholeheartedly agree. Do your best at the time you post the image. Just a very bare-bones description, if you can.

If, for whatever reason, you can't generate a description, or feel that your bare bones description needs expansion, you can always tag the image #alt4me to have a group of volunteers describe it for you.

This is another reason why #alt4me was established. To allow those who cannot themselves generate alt to still generate accessible content through the agency of volunteers.