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Hannah Kolbeck 🏳️‍⚧️

@mozilla I've been working on tools around issues like this for years, including a large amount of communication with folks who depend on alt text. Should this technology be available to those writing alt text, rather than just voluntarily to screen reader users, it will be immensely harmful to the accessibility of social media everywhere. Please do not do this. I'm happy to dive into why but please do not make it easy for people posting images to use this AI generation.
- Founder, Alt-Text.org

3 June at 19:28 | Wall-to-wall | Open on social.alt-text.org
5 comments
0x5DA

@hannah @mozilla
i'm not mozilla, but i am interested to know more. because you worry AI alt-text would be too low quality, and be detrimental?

3 June at 20:48 | Open on fosstodon.org
Hannah Kolbeck 🏳️‍⚧️

@0x5DA @mozilla I don't have capacity in this moment for the full depth, but it's a bit more complex. Writing alt text that's actually equalizing of access, especially on social media, requires knowledge of multiple layers of context in which an image appears. Similar to other AI types, AI description works impressively *sometimes* but falls down hard on many types of image commonly appearing on SM, often in ways not obviously bad to those writing alt text.

An example: bsky.app/profile/hannah.the-vo

@0x5DA @mozilla I don't have capacity in this moment for the full depth, but it's a bit more complex. Writing alt text that's actually equalizing of access, especially on social media, requires knowledge of multiple layers of context in which an image appears. Similar to other AI types, AI description works impressively *sometimes* but falls down hard on many types of image commonly appearing on SM, often in ways not obviously bad to those writing alt text.

3 June at 21:04 | Open on social.alt-text.org
0x5DA

@hannah @mozilla
hm, i see. and i guesss you don't think is a training thing..

is it worse than _no_ alt text?
a human will have a superior understanding of context, and should be strongly preferred -but many people don't all the same, and i'm doubtful that will change. this seems (from an outside perspective) to be a reasonable, if unsatisfying, solution.

3 June at 21:28 | Open on fosstodon.org
Hannah Kolbeck 🏳️‍⚧️

@0x5DA @mozilla It can be useful for a person using a screen reader to have access to an AI description, but crucial there is that said user needs to know that that's the source of said description. There are repeated patterns of those who feel pressured to include descriptions but don't actually care about accessibility doing the absolute minimum, manifesting here as using the direct AI output without examination or editing.

So yes, a lack of inline alt text is better than AI gen inline.

3 June at 21:39 | Open on social.alt-text.org
0x5DA

@hannah @mozilla
[.. because the AI output may be incorrect, and the author negligent in checking it] (?)
interested to see how they steward this. i see the concerns 🙂

thanks for your time.

3 June at 21:56 | Open on fosstodon.org
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