@ontheotherside
First of all, welcome to this space.
It's very satisfying reading this as a person who cares deeply about having alt-text on my attached media and encourages other people to do so.

If there's something else you can educate me/us in order to improve your experience, please do share!

@ontheotherside

Very happy to meet you! When I add alt text, it will be nice to know that real folks rely on it.

@ontheotherside
Welcome.
And thanks for the feedback.

I'm kinda tearful and glad to hear that we're making a difference when we add alt-texts.

@ontheotherside  !!

welcome! and yeah, it's cultural. :3

@ontheotherside This alt text has costed us a lot of sweat and tears. "please use alt text, disabled users need it", over and over, again and again, every single time a wave of newcomers arrives.

It's so reassuring to know all this has not been in vain.

@ontheotherside I love that about mastodon too!

Also, I'm not sure if you would be interested in something like this, but there is also a server called dragonscave.space that has a large community mostly made up of visually impaired people, if you'd ever like to have a space to hang out in where accessibility is enshrined in the rules 🤍 Welcome to the fediverse!

@ontheotherside

Welcome. It's your fediverse too. :)

@ontheotherside

Welcome to the Fediverse! Have a #Cat picture with #AltText! #CatsOfMastodon

@ontheotherside Oh yes, I've seen so many alt texts here. And here they are almost always shown!
I try to add alt texts to all of my media (which.. aren't a lot to be honest), so everyone can read my posts. At least if they understand the post language, which varies between English and German.

The only issue I heard of, are custom emojis. Especially with weird names. I hope my emojis aren't bad in that way 

@ontheotherside

It MAY help that I'm an obnoxiously pedantic blowhard harassing people who don't use #AltText in their pics.

Like, at least a couple times a day.

I'm insufferable, really.

Related: don't follow me. I post a lot of pics. Half the time the #AltText is "You really have to see it to believe it." Completely unhelpful.

I'm a paradox.

@ontheotherside welcome on the #Fediverse. #Mastodon tried to force the user to add Alt Text and it's a great thing. I have never added alt text to images on social networks before Mastodon !

On Bluesky they added an option in the settings which can tell you if you forgot to add an alt text to the image.

@ontheotherside Getting used to using #alttext is a drag, being reminded is a combination of annoying and feeling bad for being inconsiderate.
But then, when you’re (finally) used to it, you realise, it’s as if you have a whole extra canvas to paint on (rereading this, notice that it might not be the best of metaphors, ups)

Looking forwards to hearing from somebody who actually uses and needs this:
- what about emoji?
- and commas,
- and parentheses,
- and em-dashes?

PS welcome

@ontheotherside
Hey, makes me feel good that something good has come of me cajoling others to add alt text.

Welcome to Mastodon!

#AltText