Siobhan Masked🇺🇦🦠😷🇬🇱
Melissa BearTrixDo you read Alt Text, no, serious do you?
Hugz & xXx
Never
Under 50 % of the time
51 % to 99%cof the time
100% of the time
Poll ended at .
Thank you all that voted ... I have made a note of each one of you ... Giggles
Hugz & xXx
My camera shoots fascists2% maybe. Mostly I don't need to.
Flop King Malus@MelissaBearTrix not technically never but functionally close to never
i have been known to pettily go through someone's posts to judge their alt text though...
Wonderdog 🏳️🌈@MelissaBearTrix Most of the time I have to especially if there's text involved, and if there's no Alt Text I do get a little annoyed, because I can't get what's happening. Pictures can be difficult to interpret, too.
Droppie [infosec] 🐨
@MelissaBearTrix yeppo - always!
webhat@MelissaBearTrix all the time, usually it contains context that i missed when i looked at the image
hal@MelissaBearTrix Sure I do. I am interested 1st on how others do it and 2nd maybe I miss sth in the image the poster wants me to see.
Random Weirdo@MelissaBearTrix Almost all the time. Often I really need it to understand the context or to know what I'm actually seeing. Sometimes to check if I missed anything important. Sometimes just because I'm curious.
captain acab 
@MelissaBearTrix any time we boost
jforAlways!
And I miss Alt Text in papers, magazines, posters, on websites and everywhere else.
Mark Connolly@MelissaBearTrix @deborahh I especially read alt text when considering boosting a post, just to be sure it seems reasonable and not something like “a landscape”
Deborah Preuss, pcc 🇨🇦@uxMark @MelissaBearTrix *exactly* 👍
@uxMark @MelissaBearTrix sometimes, when I want to boost, but alttext is missing, I'll reply to the post with #alt4you, hoping the poster will edit to add thr alt text. Some do.
I do wonder if, when they don't, a reply with #alt4you helps those who need #alttext, though. Or it it's just lost.
Maybe @ChristineMalec has experience with that?
Christine Malec@uxMark @MelissaBearTrix I admit, though: I find capybaras irresistable, but the CapybaraBot alttext is only ever "image of a capybara".
Mostly I resist … and then some few just neeeed to be boosted! #sorryNotSorry
Kagan MacTane (he/him)@uxMark This right here. Just checking that there is an alt text isn't enough to boost; it's got to be *actually useful for someone who can't see the image*.
Eric LawtonI feel like trivia like "photo" are a mockery.
But maybe some people's software adds it automatically.
@EricLawton @kagan @uxMark @MelissaBearTrix worst is so-called AI alttext: may be an image of a man in a suit. But for a visually impaired person, in some instances, this may be better than "image", I'd guess.
2xfo@deborahh @EricLawton @kagan @uxMark @MelissaBearTrix
I often think about two specific gif alt texts i saw. In one image Snoop Dogg was repeatedly hitting a response button in a posh gameshow setting, it got labeled "a man in a chair wears a hat". The other one had Conan the Librarian from UHF lifting a man by his collar with one arm, it was labeled "a man wears gold cuffs"
So yeah, i try to read before i boost!
@RnDanger @deborahh @EricLawton @uxMark @MelissaBearTrix Wow, those are both way worse than no alt text at all, or even an alt text that's just "an animated GIF". Those at least let the reader know for sure that the text's garbage. The ones you just mentioned leave the reader scratching their head and wondering, "How the hell does this relate to the surrounding context? Am I just not getting it?" They waste the reader's time and energy with uselessly irrelevant, misleading crap. Yuck!
@kagan @RnDanger @EricLawton @uxMark @MelissaBearTrix it might feel like getting left outcofca private joke 😟.
Space Catitude 🚀Generally yes. I'm fully sighted (well, with correction), but I find that alt text often provides useful context and tells me what the image means to the poster.
Terrific for identifying the faces of public figures whom I often do not know by sight, for example.
Then I find myself trying to read it on news sites, and it's often not there. 😅
Rob@MelissaBearTrix My favourite recent alt-text is "screenshot". Why even bother.
yelling jackal@MelissaBearTrix all the time! I can't always load images, and even when I can, I'm often very bad at realising what I'm looking at. It's not my eyes, it's my brain 
Mike@MelissaBearTrix The only time I don't is when i know they'll describe something well.
Ada (Villain arc) 🏳️⚧️@MelissaBearTrix I don't know the exact statistic for myself but there's a lot of people who do it 100% of the time. I'm not blind so it probably isn't very often for me.
Tattie@MelissaBearTrix skim it, usually
Sam Livingston-Gray
Angua 
@MelissaBearTrix
Are you kidding me?
How else am I going to know WTH is going on in the picture*.
This IS the Fediverse.
Seriously though I do get judgy over AT.
*Mostly USian ones, I rarely have a clue what's going on and don't get the context.
Are you kidding me?
How else am I going to know WTH is going on in the picture*.
This IS the Fediverse.
Seriously though I do get judgy over AT.
*Mostly USian ones, I rarely have a clue what's going on and don't get the context.
LAURENThe best stuff is often written in the alt text. If you don't read you are missing out.
Zekovski 🧣@MelissaBearTrix
I've started reading less because I know some people I can trust without having to check before boosting.
I've started reading less because I know some people I can trust without having to check before boosting.
Rachel Rawlings@MelissaBearTrix I mostly read before boosting to make sure it's real and not some useless slop.
Sometimes I read if I'm not sure what something is, or if I know someone tends to have great text.
James 🌈💜Some days I'm blind so...
yetzt@MelissaBearTrix why no option for 50-51% or 99-100%?
Jen@MelissaBearTrix most of the time.
I'm not visually impaired. I do have myopia and astigmatism. I also find concentrating hard and have light sensitivity.
Alt puts screenshots of text into my choice of font, size and colour, making them much easier to read.
I often don't recognise people in photos, so alt helps me work out what's going on.
Sometimes I'm just curious as to what it says and can be treated to words that are just as pretty as the picture.
I'm not visually impaired. I do have myopia and astigmatism. I also find concentrating hard and have light sensitivity.
Alt puts screenshots of text into my choice of font, size and colour, making them much easier to read.
I often don't recognise people in photos, so alt helps me work out what's going on.
Sometimes I'm just curious as to what it says and can be treated to words that are just as pretty as the picture.
WriteDragon@MelissaBearTrix Not only do I read it, I am far, far more likely to boost posts that use it, but only "favorite" ones that don't use it.
hauch@MelissaBearTrix
If I don't just scroll past an image, I usually read it.
I also read it, before boosting and if it's low quality I don't boost.
If someone posts an "AI"-image without mentioning it in the Alt-Text, I also block them (with one exception so far of someone who I'm curious who still interacts with them and boosts their posts).
thefathippyYes. Not always, but usually. Some (like me) use alt text to not only describe the image, but add extra background info. 500 char a toot just ain't enough! For some bizarre reason, my instance allows alt text that's much longer than toots. 🤷
Deborah Edwards-Oñoro@MelissaBearTrix Yes, all the time. I wear glasses to read.
Lots of helpful info in alt text I wouldn't know without reading it.
Curtiss Grymala (he/him/his)@MelissaBearTrix if we're talking about social media, yes. If we're talking about general web surfing, not usually.
Edwin G. 
@MelissaBearTrix @SnowyCA When I try to understand what I’m looking at.
❄️SnowyIn🇨🇦❄️Often people leave important info in the alt text that isn't in the body of the post-that's why I always read it
Joe Cooper 🇺🇦 🍉@MelissaBearTrix if I'm boosting something, I read it 100% of the time, to make sure it has alt text and it reasonably represents what's in the image.
Werkmeister@MelissaBearTrix
always - if there is any
always - if there is any
🍋 Superball ☀️@MelissaBearTrix
What great results!
Jigme Datse@MelissaBearTrix Somewhere around 50% of the time. It annoys me that my masto.host mastodon instance makes it rather difficult. I think this is a decision on the part of the mastodon dev team, not masto.host.
Prisma@MelissaBearTrix I am lucky to not be dependent on Alt texts.
However, if I don´t "get it" (e.g. there is a "joke" or I do not understand the meaning of a text, or something is really tiny...), I look up the Alt-Text. Sometimes the description also explains e.g. the joke or gives a different perspective. Nevertheless most of the time, it is not helpful for my purpose 😅 (but of course, that is not the main reason for Alt-Texts)
I am so happy, that Alt Texts exist for inclusion of people 🤗
J. R. DePriest 
:EA DATA. SF:Y'all are missing out if you don't read it. Extra context, extra jokes, details you might have misinterpreted laid out.
Of course, I'm AuDHD so I often need the help.