What convinced you to start adding alt text to images you post online?
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@Cassandra "distinguish between explaining and nagging"
Ha, yeah, I think people will enjoy interpreting this their own way!
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@stefan I was using alt text on my Wordpress blog before I came to Mastodon so I put that under "general knowledge" (I also had a colleague who did QA on front ends, who educated me about a lot of accessibility issues).
That said, another big motivator for me is that I actually enjoy writing alt text. As an amateur writer, I find it to be excellent practice for writing descriptive prose.
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@macronencer Nice! Yeah, I see writing alt text as a fun challenge sometimes. Really helps you improve writing and communication skills!
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@stefan mutuals with visual impairments posting about how to do it and how not to do it
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@stefan I have a lot of muted words to try to avoid a very triggering topic, and if an image has alt text, it gets muted, too. So in addition to everything else, I’m extending that same courtesy to others who are avoiding things for their own mental health.
I also find it a really useful writing exercise, and it makes me slow down and think about what I’m trying to communicate with the image. I also did alt text for Looptober; describing music was a real interesting challenge.
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@stefan SEO
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@Workshopshed Hah!
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Ángela Stella Matutinareplied to Stefan Bohacek last edited by
Coming from the culture of printed books which had a caption for every image.
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Stefan Bohacekreplied to Ángela Stella Matutina last edited by
@angelastella Oh nice, that's something I wouldn't have thought of!
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The Yangsi Michael Dillonreplied to Stefan Bohacek last edited by
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Stefan Bohacekreplied to The Yangsi Michael Dillon last edited byThis post is deleted!
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Stefan Bohacekreplied to The Yangsi Michael Dillon last edited by [email protected]
@anantagd I'm not suggesting that asking for alt text is automatically nagging. That option is included together with "asking" so that people can interpret it themselves.
This way, the poll can show which methods of advocating for the use of alt text are more effective, and how they're perceived.
So, looking at the results, most people convinced by strangers asking them didn't see that as nagging. But seeing others using and talking about alt text was a much bigger motivator.
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@stefan I started it because I benefit from image descriptions myself.
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yes, especially you @bright_helpings
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@bright_helpings Ah, that would've been a good option to include!
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@schratze I think it's interesting that a couple people's "something else" is "I actually know blind/visually impaired people here and I'm certain they will benefit from it." Even with so many poll options (and indeed so many kinds of people who benefit from image descriptions), it's still assumed that blind people are an abstraction and not anyone's pals.
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ColdAgainFlux :mastodon:replied to Stefan Bohacek last edited by
@stefan hadn't really thought about it much before masto, but saw it being done and thought "that's a great idea" so started doing it. Then also started relying on it myself for context that (it turns out) I often miss. Now one of my fav features
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@Heidentweet @anantagd Okay, I can see better what you meant here. The option "A stranger explaining it to me" was meant to cover that.
Arguably you could include "asking" and "explaining" as separate options to get extra granular.
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@Heidentweet @anantagd In my head I thought of it as "Can you please add alt text so that I/others can understand what's in the image?" being an "explanation* of why it's needed.
