Personally I think alt-text is valuable for everyone, not for just people with visual impairments.
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@Yehuda if someone posts a picture of a particularly beautiful location, I frequently check the alt text to see if they say where it is. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.
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@Yehuda 613!!!
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@Yehuda I read the alt text if I’m unsure what I am looking at or if the toot doesn’t explain the picture at all.
I appreciate people who take the time to actually write a descriptive alt text and do so myself.
Just adding one word that does not even describe what’s in the photo is utterly useless. -
@Yehuda i put effort into making my alt text worth reading
@bigtuffal @Yehuda same here. Plus it's an act of mindfulness for me not to spam socials with images but instead try to communicate why this is worth looking at
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@Yehuda I'm not visually impaired and read alt text not always, not rarely, but sometimes.
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@Yehuda I read it with videos especially, due to always having my phone on mute.
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@Yehuda (not impaired) Recently I installed a script to have the AltText appearing just below the image so I can read it without moving the mouse!
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@Yehuda as a person on the spectrum, I find it helpful to understand the intended messages, or the joke.
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@Yehuda
We're sighted and love alt text. Sometimes what you're supposed to be looking at isn't clear, sometimes the description makes the joke click, etc. We don't post or boost images without it. -
ok wow, 613 poll responses in the first 60 mins - Mvto!
@Yehuda Taryag!
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@Yehuda Alt text very often clarifies the thing I was missing about an in-joke or meme.
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@Yehuda I don't even have talkback or speech recognition services in my phone
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I can't read this post... alr lemme get the alt text... wait, I still can't read... *puts on glasses* Ohhh... Wait am I visually impaired or not?
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@Yehuda
Mastodon is a bad exemple of alt text : it mixes description, legend and alternative text.
Alternative text must be used -as it has been designed for- as an alternative for people who need it, not like a creative extra text field for jokes or exclusives informations. The role of alt text is precisely to reduce the understanding gap between peoples, not to expand it.
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@Yehuda
Mastodon is a bad exemple of alt text : it mixes description, legend and alternative text.
Alternative text must be used -as it has been designed for- as an alternative for people who need it, not like a creative extra text field for jokes or exclusives informations. The role of alt text is precisely to reduce the understanding gap between peoples, not to expand it.
1/2@Yehuda
With Mastodon, if you want all people have an information, write it in the message, please.
If you want to do two-step jokes, use CW or reply to your own message.
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@Yehuda more promising than my old poll results.
This was from years ago though. And tiny but close (to me) sample size. Hopefully folk’s stance has improved since.
Colin (@colinstu@birdbutt.com)
Attached: 1 image A little saddened by the poll results. Alt text isn't only for those with vision problems! I sometimes provide more info or context to stuff in the pic, as it's kinda awkward to try to describe 4 pics in the main body of post. Also if I am describing what is seen, I try to do so in a way that would make sense if one couldn't see, so maybe it’s a lil awkward to read sometimes. But anyway, try reading folks’ alt text / desc more! Uncover a whole new world.
Birdbutt (birdbutt.com)
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The primary impact of an image is visual. It delivers and unpacks in an instant a universe of cultural connotations, a fist of meaning. So much so that all I can describe in alt-text is my impression of the image. I try to describe it as neutrally as possible but it's only ever going be a subjective impression with the details foregrounded that are most important to me. Being autistic doesn't help, because I'm faced with a plethora of competing choices.
So I rarely look at alt-text.
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@Yehuda I ticked "not impaired and often read", although I don't know that I'd say I often read it - more that I read it when it helps - if there's a joke I'm not getting, or something I fell I'm not spotting. So even if I don't often read it deliberately, when I do, it's massively helpful.
