Mastodawn

LiteralGrill Sep 4, 2023

I see people on my timeline now and then grumpy that people are trying to encourage others to use alt-text, sometimes saying people are "too pushy" or they "deserve to be able to post in peace."

So folks actively work together for once to advocate for accessibility for disabled people and your primary complaint is that it's annoying so stop? I hope folks wake up and realize how fucked up that is.

ESPECIALLY when tons of people refuse to wear masks leaving us stuck in our homes where social media is a godsend for having community.

I'd have loved to see these folks' reactions when people in wheelchairs were using sledge hammers to put in curb cuts back in the day. Maybe we gotta bring that kind of energy back. #Disablity #DisabilityJustice

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Kara Goldfinch Sep 4, 2023

@literalgrill I love stories of disabled people going we're Tired of this and taking things into our own hands. It also saddens me the amount of other blind people I've come across over the years that've basically said to put up and shut up and accept things as they are. I used to be one of them unfortunately.
I don't think I've gone as far as smashing up curbs, which I'm in favour of, but I'm not against having a good stern word with someone if I feel it's needed.

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LiteralGrill

@KaraLG84 My bus stop by my house got me injured and we're forced to use bus lanes here. If the city keeps refusing to fix it soon, I'm about ready for the sledge hammer purely because I need to use the bus dang it!

But yeah, there's an easy solution here for Mastodon: Require alt-text on ALL posts. Hard code this into Mastodon. Why isn't this happening?

The implication is that blind folks aren't worth the "convenience" of abled folks. And I'm not okay with that.

Edit: I've gotten some responses explaining that programming this might actually not be possible and of course, there are folks who can't create alt-text that need to be thought of too. But even letting other users submit alt-text for photos for users to approve would be a cool start!