Personally I think alt-text is valuable for everyone, not for just people with visual impairments.
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@Yehuda
At this point, 245 people have taken this survey and only 2% say, "I'm visually impaired & often read AltTxt."I'm surprised it's that low.
@scandigonian @Yehuda I don't mean this to offend anyone, but those of us that are vocal about alt text might just be louder than those who need it.
It's a bit like that crude joke "How do you know someone is vegan? They'll tell you". This poll is the perfect bait for anyone who wants—on some level—to brag about their commitment to alt text. I'd be lying if I didn't say some part of me is fishing for a thank you. However, this poll also highlights that I too have noticed alt text has made the Internet better for me. Hence (IMO) the overwhelming bias towards "not needed but yes I read it".
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i like hiding little bits of humor in alt text but i've worried that overdoing it might be annoying to people with actual need for it
@gloriouscow @realtegan @Yehuda secret alt text FTW
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@Yehuda I often am out and about with really bad internet, it is super useful
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To be clear and transparent, I answered “not visually impaired” even though I am visually impaired but get full functional correction from lenses.
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@Yehuda I agreed with you before I saw the poll results, which absolutely agree with you.
I'm reminded of a cartoon I saw of a caretaker shovelling snow off the steps into a school, saying something like "when I'm done with this, I can work on the ramp." The response is "yeah, but if you did the ramp first, then everyone could get in together."
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@Yehuda@turtleisland.social i misread the poll, remove one vote from "i am visually impaired and often read alt text" and add it to "i am not visually impaired and often read alt text"
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@Yehuda I'm not visually impaired and do indeed often read alt text. It's sometimes useful for stuff like figuring out what is actually going on in an image/video for example. I can't emphasize enough how much it helps sometimes when people present a thing they just get, but some of us don't. Especially with things like when we're supposed to recognize a particular person or something in an image. Alt text can tell us what any of it even means when otherwise we have no clue. Also sometimes my connection is acting up and it's the only way I can even know what's in a post when the images or videos don't load.
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I usually put more posting text in the image's alt text than I do in the post.
I'm often frustrated by how often the alt text reporting bot ranks my instance. Sometimes we get over 50%, but not often.
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I like to put funny bonus content in my alt text and I hope others do to so I check
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@Yehuda I have visual impairments, but not blindness specifically. Alt-text is still used by me on occasion for additional context and those times where I'm encountering a slow/spotty connection.
I'd imagine TTS would be handy for those times my eyes are badly fatigued and I can't look at the display.
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@Yehuda Curious if screen readers read poll choices.
@equalitysiren @Yehuda Yeah, I'm now wondering that too.
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ok wow, 613 poll responses in the first 60 mins - Mvto!
@Yehuda 613!!!
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@Yehuda xkcd made alt-text fun
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@Yehuda I assume I don't count as "visually impaired" because my vision is correctable to 20/20. I mostly use alt text if my connection shits the bed or if I need more context for what I'm looking at
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@Yehuda Peripatologists of the world unite!
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@Yehuda I don't often read them, but when I do it's because I can't understand the image by itself & need more context
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@Yehuda why do I depend on alt-text? I disabled media previews for saving data
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@Yehuda it's great to find a really well done alt text but mostly I only read them when I have a question about the image. I like the challenge of writing them, but sometimes I don't do an especially good job of it. When I first came here I liked that they are very much encouraged.
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@Yehuda@turtleisland.social I am visually impaired but not to the point of requiring alt text, yet I still read it for more context frequently.
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@Yehuda I'm not visually impaired but I *always* read alt text. Some of the people I follow write alt text so goddamn good it's like reading Tolkien write about trees.
