@AlinaLeonova Yeah, I saw the recent conversation around...

@AlinaLeonova Yeah, I saw the recent conversation around the topic of asking people to provide alt text on their images (not a fan!) and writing alt text for them (much better approach!).

Interestingly, and again, this is a self-reported poll, so take it with a grain of salt, but it seems that most people don't mind this.

https://stefanbohacek.online/@stefan/112378717737322124

If you're interested, I just put some more relevant polls here: https://stefanbohacek.com/blog/polls-about-alt-text-on-social-media/

Like 6 December at 13:30 | Wall-to-wall | Open on stefanbohacek.online

9 comments

Alina Leonova

@stefan Block the person? Wow, I didn’t expect anyone to do it. Just 1% but still 🤦🏻‍♀️ And I’ve seen people insult those who add alt-text for them in the comments (there was a thread about it recently from an art account, I’ll try to find it), which is just… I don’t even know what to say about those people.

6 December at 13:46 | Open on wandering.shop

Alina Leonova

@stefan This is the thread: https://mastodon.art/@Curator/113587867567399133

6 December at 13:49 | Open on wandering.shop

Stefan Bohacek

@AlinaLeonova Yes, saw this, thank you!

And yeah, I've read about people getting blocked without being rude or snarky when providing alt text, I think some people just get too defensive about this, see it as a judgement no matter how you phrase your reply.

And genuinely I don't know what the best solution is here.

In the article I shared in my original post, it's clear that the interface and available tools can make a big difference.

How to change the culture though? I'm not so sure!

6 December at 13:55 | Open on stefanbohacek.online

Alina Leonova

@stefan How to change the culture is the most important question! Tools are definitely important. Posts from blind users who say how alt-text impacts their experience have made a big impression on me, though admittedly I was already using alt-text. Conversations about it, education. It’s already much better here in the Fediverse than anywhere else, but we still have a long way to go.

6 December at 14:01 | Open on wandering.shop

Stefan Bohacek replied to Alina

@AlinaLeonova Definitely! This is the main motivation behind @alttexthalloffame, education, and inspiration.

6 December at 14:22 | Open on stefanbohacek.online

Laberpferd

@stefan @AlinaLeonova
I am strongly on the opinion that "alt text" itself is the wrong solution

What i mean is, i would be strongly prefer if the standard would be to have much more "normal" text here like 1k or more bytes, and then this one text just describes everything including the picture

6 December at 17:24 | Open on sueden.social

Stefan Bohacek replied to Laberpferd

@Laberpferd Interesting idea!

Personally I prefer the image description to be "with" the image, but I'd love to hear from folks who actually use screen readers, if this makes a difference to them.

Also, interestingly, there is a way to embed the description in the image file itself, which would be great for sharing the same image via different channels, it's just not very widely used.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/embedding-alt-text-in-an-image-file/td-p/14135973

@AlinaLeonova

@Laberpferd Interesting idea!

Personally I prefer the image description to be "with" the image, but I'd love to hear from folks who actually use screen readers, if this makes a difference to them.

Also, interestingly, there is a way to embed the description in the image file itself, which would be great for sharing the same image via different channels, it's just not very widely used.

Expand text...

6 December at 17:37 | Open on stefanbohacek.online