Do you read Alt Text, no, serious do you?

[sequundi@social.tchncs.de]

@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.

[sci_fi_fangirl@hessen.social]

@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.

[redsad@ohai.social]

@MelissaBearTrix any time we boost

[adusum@mastodon.social]

@MelissaBearTrix
I have decent, but aging, vision. I use the alt text more often than not.
I think the use of alt text is another example of where, when we help one group of people, we benefit us all. Like letdowns at kerbs and other things.
I won't boost images w/o alt text, but I gave up lecturing about it years ago. I think new fedizens eventually soak into the culture.
Another handy thing about alt text, is that you can translate it.

[fae2535@mstdn.social]

@MelissaBearTrix

Always!

And I miss Alt Text in papers, magazines, posters, on websites and everywhere else.

[lkdc@dmv.community]

@MelissaBearTrix Always. By default, only the alt text loads on my phone. When there is no alt text, I have no idea what a photo or video shows.

[uxmark@cosocial.ca]

@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”

[terryhancock@realsocial.life]

@MelissaBearTrix

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.

[deborahh@cosocial.ca]

@uxMark @MelissaBearTrix *exactly*

[deborahh@cosocial.ca]

@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?

[deborahh@cosocial.ca]

@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@wandering.shop]

@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*.

@MelissaBearTrix @deborahh

[rob@musicians.today]

@MelissaBearTrix My favourite recent alt-text is "screenshot". Why even bother.

[christinemalec@mstdn.ca]

@deborahh @uxMark @MelissaBearTrix I'm going with "just lost," cause this doesn't sound familiar.

[len@nyan.network]

@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

[melissabeartrix@gives.hugz.online]

@Rob

That's pointless

Hugz & xXx

[sunumbral@beige.party]

@MelissaBearTrix The only time I don't is when i know they'll describe something well.

[axolotl1@gaygeek.social]

@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@eldritch.cafe]

@MelissaBearTrix skim it, usually

[deborahh@cosocial.ca]

@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.