šŸ‘‹ Hello Mastodon! I’m a frontend dev who shares stories from my tech-life balance — coding, accessibility, React, travel tales, and a bit of gardening.

Expect #WebDev thoughts, #Accessibility tips, and maybe my #BalconyGarden updates.

#Introduction #FrontendDev #ReactJS #Mastodon #Accessibility #BalconyGarden

@katrinzaks This might be my server issue here, it does that sometimes, but looks like your image description didn't make it through. :)
@jakobrosin it is not informative :)

@katrinzaks @jakobrosin Incorrect. As someone who by their own bio 'focuses on accessibility' (it's right there in the name) it behooves you to be inclusive, thus, adding #AltText.
If the image has nothing to do with your post, why is it here?
If it does have something to do with it, even tangentially, then you should add it.
I'm sorry, but if 'Accessibility' is your whole thing, then consider actually being accessible.

I've asked #BeMyEyes to do the work for you in this case but let's start as we mean to go on, perhaps?

Be My AI
A smiling woman with long, light brown hair and glasses, wearing a black top. She is standing indoors in front of a brick wall and a window. She is holding up a small rubber duck in her left hand. The duck is dressed to look like a nerd, with black glasses, a white shirt, a bow tie, and suspenders. The lighting is warm and highlights her face and hair.

@FreakyFwoof @jakobrosin thank you for your help, but i do not agree with you. It is my choice to decide if I add image or not, and if i do not find it important and informative i am not going to add alt text. Because as 'someone who focuses on accessibility' I also know that there is a difference between image that brings value and the one that does not.
@katrinzaks @jakobrosin You are by your very nature excluding both myself and Jakob who are blind and thus benefit from alt-text. Accessibility? Not so much... It's a bad look.

@katrinzaks @jakobrosin Though I cannot read them and don't benefit from them, whenever I post youtube videos to my channel that have spoken content, I include subtitles for those people it would benefit.

If your entire shtick is 'accessibility' then by failing to adhere to being accessible, you misrepresent yourself.

PS. Many people will refuse to boost or otherwise promote those that do not include alt text in images on the Fediverse, so you may gain very little traction if you choose not to do so.

@FreakyFwoof @jakobrosin YouTube videos is not the same, there you do not have a choice :) but decorative images do not have to have alt text, and if i am not boosted because i do not look at accessibility in black and white then let it be.
@katrinzaks @jakobrosin Honestly, I wouldn't care if your bio and post itself didn't mention 'accessibility' but you do, and as a result, you misrepresent accessibility to the wider world and this offends me greatly.
Without that, I'd just choose to ignore your image posts entirely if they didn't have alt-text, as of course there are many people that don't post with alt-text. I get that, but as you decided that accessibility is your thing, you should not only talk the talk, but walk the walk as well. You clearly are not able to do so.
@FreakyFwoof @jakobrosin Sorry to be rude, but you are not to decide what I am able to do and what I am not. Because of such negative attacks people are panicking only hearing "accessibility" and eventually choose not to do anything with that. I am sorry for offending you by excluding you from understanding what is on my picture, in my future posts I will add alt text even for "black wall" picture types, if it is so important for you, guys :)
@katrinzaks @jakobrosin I'll leave you with this, I hope it's some food for thought. https://universeodon.com/@FreakyFwoof/110236509929172972
Andre Louis (@[email protected])

Content warning: A post I initially made over on #BirdSite about #accessibility, copied here for preservation reasons.

Universeodon Social Media
@katrinzaks THanks. And absolutely, a totally black picture of a wall deserves an alt as well. Because it was put there for a reason. A decoration has also a reason in the end. And thats why I said earlier, that there are very little cases where images don't deserve alt text. @FreakyFwoof
@jakobrosin
@FreakyFwoof that's really good to know. The real problem is that tutorials do not teach that. It is said everywhere "No alt text needed for decorative images". The connection to real people, i understand now, can enlighten. I am really happy you started an arguement with me, guys :)
@katrinzaks I encourage you to get familiar on users expectations and user patterns. in accessibility, understanding what people expect is the main ingredient in providing a good result. :) @FreakyFwoof

@jakobrosin @FreakyFwoof Absolutely! I would love too, but I need to meet more real people and not just read books.

Do you have any go-to resources sharing experiences? (e.g. user interviews, blogs?)

@katrinzaks @jakobrosin I give presentations about accessibility, Jakob runs his own company and does this sort of thing for a living. You're in good company if you wish to learn more.
@katrinzaks @jakobrosin We want to enjoy your thought processes, even if we may not be able to see them. By adding alt-text, you allow blind people to enjoy it just as you do. I think the duck picture is actually very cool, and I'm glad you posted it, but without context, I feel left out and unable to follow the conversation.
You may find an entirely new crew of duck-lovers because of that picture, and I'd never know why.
Thanks to AI tools and methods, I know what the picture contains but a human will *always* be better than a human-made tool for describing the picture.
There might be some nuance that AI did not pick up on, or something you want people to be drawn to in particular. So many things.
I'm grateful for your future inclusion of alt-text and hope you understand where we are coming from.