A few extra seconds of your time it takes to add a good image description can really improve someone's day.
"To a totally blind person like me it means a lot to have a picture in my mind of your images, especially the animal pics."
"I don't know what it is, but as a blind user it's making me emotional to be able to actually interact with content."
Huge thanks to everyone sharing this!
Want to start adding good alt text to your images, but feel a bit intimidated?
Here's a quick guide that's easy to follow!
Via https://mastodon.social/@alttexthalloffame/112026971409044465
Yes, as some pointed out, the example alt text could be improved for folks not too familiar with capybaras, or yuzu fruits.
Something like this might work:
"A capybara, a large rodent animal with brown fur, sitting in water, with its head poking out, looking relaxed.
Yellow yuzu fruits, a citrus fruit similar to lemons, are floating in the water, and one is balanced on top of the capybara's head."
Still, very much following this guide. Good reminder to always keep your audience in mind!
@alttexthalloffame
This seems like a good idea, but I could never identify a capybara or yuzu fruit. My version:
Grey thing in something, maybe with water, with yellow thingies.
@xtb
After a good minute of close inspection, I would describe them as "round yellow fruits"
@alttexthalloffame I don't think it looks relaxed at all, I think it looks irritated.
Expression is subjective.
@alttexthalloffame My much older brother tells the story, from his childhood in the 1950s, of my mother driving the car through the countryside and narrating what she saw so that her blind (from diabetes) husband could enjoy the view. My brother would lie down on the back seat, close his eyes and see the world the way his father saw it.
I think of that every time there’s a request here to include ALT text descriptions on Mastodon. It’s such a small ask with such a huge upside.
@alttexthalloffame @thepoliticalcat
looks left
looks right
whispers:
I'm a little face blind. I appreciate knowing who is in the pictures.
PEEPS, no it is not a small ask for a lot of people. it does change the posting flow. IOW it takes time for those adjustments to sink in.
as a writer, i take microblogging seriously. so when this became an issue here, i decided to honor the request.
it doesn't feel natural at all. there are times too much is going on in an image that i feel like am cheating by not including it all.
sometimes i want to get the post out of the way & include the AltTex on edit. 1/2
so, FWIW it would be nice to have on the fediverse what Reddit had for a while: there was a brigade of folks adding the AltText in a comment.
we have Monsterdon here on Sundays and part of the fun is the fast posting of commentary. that could have GIFs or images from the movie or something else and most folks don't add an AltText immediately. i certainly don't. i come back later.
it would be nice for other folks to offer an AltText so we can add it on edit. 2/2
@alttexthalloffame @Kimota94 i did not know that. this should be an ongoing fedi tip.
oops, forgot to say thanks.
@alttexthalloffame
@blogdiva @Kimota94
So, I wanted to ask, especially to our blind users:
Sometimes an image is missing alt text, so I add it, and I add the tag #Alt4You
Does that help people find alt text, added by somebody else, that's not actually attached to the image posted?
Or do people find that there's no alt text, and then don't look in the replies for #AltText?
I just hope my efforts aren't wasted.
How do people with low vision use the #Alt4You hashtag? Are you able to reliably fish these posts out of the comments when a pic doesn’t have its own? Do you follow the hashtag to supplement your feed with accessible posts? It’s not immediately obvious to me, so I’m trying to figure out the best/most helpful way to use it. Thanks for any thoughts you’re willing to share 🙏
@potungthul I always look in the replies.
I don't think your effort is wasted.
@bright_helpings
Thank you! I will make more of an effort to add alt text to images without it, just in case you're the one reading. :)
I know what you mean about added image descriptions in the replies getting lost. On twitter I used to use quote tweets to add image descriptions.
But quoting posts doesn't work the same way here. So I do a reply with #AltText4You and then try to remember to boost the reply (I've been told that boosting helps?)
Not sure what's best.
14 more boxes of upgraded Clutterfly items released; CW: long post (almost 49,000 characters due to extremely long image descriptions, but the main post text itself is 770 characters long), eye contact (technically invisible, but present), food (berries and candy canes, technically invisible, but...
@eaterofsnacks Not blind myself, but from what I can tell, whimsy can definitely be appreciated!
https://stefanbohacek.online/@stefan/110848657796445471
(You just don't want to overdo it, of course.)
Question for #blind #VisuallyImpaired folks, what kind of image descriptions do you prefer? #accessibility #a11y #AltText #ImageDescription [ ] Short, to the point [ ] As detailed as possible [ ] Add a little whimsy! [ ] Show results.
Craig Moore
Alt Text Hall of Fame
J
rainey 🌻
Erik
Jupiter Rowland
Cherry
hakuin
guenther
Kimota94
stevenray
Joe 
Chip Unicorn
Sibylle
your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦
Potung Thul
Moon joy
Ahimsa
Mike Torr
the Amygdalai Lama
EaterOfSnacks