Post
People tend to think of ALT text as a "good thing to do for people with disabilities". That is true, but also reductive. It is useful for everyone, as is generally the case with accessibility.
I sometimes see posts with screenshots of text in a language I don't speak. If they had ALT text, I could use the "Translate" feature, and it would translate both the post and the transcription.
If you post in English, everyone who doesn't speak English fluently will benefit from ALT text.
@eloquence And sometimes, it's not immediately obvious what you are looking at, especially on a small screen or in poor light conditions, but Alt text explains it.
@eloquence 100% .
Writing good alt text is hard (uploaded few of my cat pictures and was suffering to write something). Still reading alt text helps when you watch picture and don't get it, then alt text points out what you must focus on which helps when you missed obvious.
From personal experience: I wanted to see more fanart on gacha game I enjoy. #arknight have almost no action. I gone and found Misskey.io have JP artists posting art. Having text on art and no idea how react or is it NSFW...
@eloquence I am sometimes on with a bad connection, and alt text helps me decide if I want to commit to seeing the full image.
@eloquence it’s fun to write little secret messages there.
I sometimes use alt text to explain my jokes to those with an... under developed sense of humour. 😆
@eloquence The possibility to add to @Mastodon @Gargron a way for people to propose ALT that the OP can accept (and be added to OP post) could be good for people who "forget" once.
Someone propose OP accept it's added.
@eloquence I often don't recognize prominent people and it helps a lot if their names are in the alt text.
@eloquence
I LOVE when there is #AltText I can translate 🥰
@eloquence I sometimes have troubles with images loading. I use the alt text to know what is even in the post.
Also, sometimes I don't get what they're trying to show in an image. Alt text usually explains it. Sometimes, when it comes to someone making a joke, it's the only way I even get it... But also with complex/professional things, sometimes it helps me understand a thing I might not at all otherwise.
I have exceptionally good vision. I can see the individual pixels on my monitor (I had to get a slightly bigger screen than I normally would, so DPI is not optimal for me.) You're not kidding when you say alt-text benefits everyone. It truly does...
@eloquence Thank you for saying this!
Despite ostensibly having useful functioning vision, I often struggle to discern what a photo is intended to communicate, even tho I can "see" it just fine.
While one could argue (rightly, even) that this is still a cognitive impairment on some level, I don't think those are the kind of disabilities people are thinking of.
It's just a little added clarity for *anyone* who needs it, lovely
@eloquence or maybe you have slow internet or limited data and don’t want to load an image, at least without knowing whether it might be worth it.
@eloquence And sometime it helps with reference that are not that obvious.
It helped sometime with joke where people post a photo and I'm like "I've no idea who is this bloke" and the alt provide who is the person and I'm more familiar with their name than their face.
@eloquence Agreed! I also enjoy it when posters put a joke or pithy comment in their alt text.
@eloquence Another use of alt text: when a post "breaches containment" (Tumblr for "Gets shared outside of the community it orriginates, and thus is in front of a large number of viewers who lack the orriginal context), the alt text can provide a crucial starting point to answer questions like "What part of this image is important?" And " What is this referencing?"
@eloquence There are all kinds of good things about alt text, from people's creative descriptions to the description of the image adding more info (it's source, who someone is, etc).
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