Agnes6d ago

Would someone who uses a screen reader (or is an actual expert in the #accessibility area) kindly let me know if the custom of “adding alt text via a reply to a post” is actually helpful or not?

As in, if an image in a post doesn’t have alt text, do you scroll through the replies in the hopes that you find one? Or is this custom not too helpful, because you move on as soon as you find that the image is lacking alt text? Thank you so much for your insights in advance!

Show threadarti6d ago
@agnes i just quoted a post by adding #alttext in front of the quote post. Does this help or is it just not seen by most in federation?
Show threadarti6d ago
@agnes but i also thought about posting it below as comment generating maybe more reach but as you asked...? @Fragglemuppet
Show threadChrisR6d ago
@arti @Fragglemuppet @agnes I've seen several examples where folk have used that hashtag in comments. It would be ideal if the OP would take the hint and add it to the image, but I guess too many people CBA, sadly.
Show threadarti
@agnes @Fragglemuppet @carusb so all those diffusion llm generated alt text bot comment thingies are useless, unless announced in the original post by a later edit?
Nov 29 at 9:05amWeb
Show thread👩‍🦯The Blind Fraggle6d ago
@arti @agnes @carusb @arti If you want someone else to do the alt text, and they're always made by real people, use the tag #Alt4Me. That'll let me know as a blind person to keep looking, as well.
Show threadMorgan ⚧️4d ago
@arti @agnes @Fragglemuppet @carusb there was a post going around about LLM generated alt text the other day, and a lot of people see it as useless even if it's in the actual alt text field (because it doesn't describe the *purpose* of the image, just the visible details and those are frequently inaccurate anyway)
So yeah... Those bots aren't doing nearly as much as a person writing the alt text in the image they're posting. Whether they're completely useless is an individual opinion
Show thread👩‍🦯The Blind Fraggle4d ago
@raphaelmorgan @arti @agnes @carusb Yeah, I mean when I said they're better than nothing in that other post that's exactly what I meant, better than absolutely nothing. But basically I want to know why you thought the picture is important and what you want me to focus on.