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A variation of the "Epic Handshake" meme from the 1987 sci-fi movie Predator, showing a close-up of four men (instead of the original 2) greeting each other with an arm-wrestle handshake. Each arm is labeled with the following text: - Blind and <br />vision-impaired people - People with temporarily impaired vision - People with slow internet connection - People wondering WTF they're looking at The words "alt text" are shown in the center where all four hands meet.

2025-09-07 17:04:58

Alt Text Hall of Fame

alttexthalloffame@mastodon.social

Everyone wins!

#AltText #accessibility

2025-09-07 17:15:54

Amy Maybe

APBBlue@thepit.social

@alttexthalloffame Also: People amused by the delightful descriptions creative and kind people provide in their alt-texts.

2025-09-07 17:38:10

Christophe

christophegueret@mastodon.green

@alttexthalloffame also, machine learning algorithms in need for both a text and an image for joint learning.

2025-09-07 17:41:43

Sir Toootenstein

sir_toootenstein@det.social

@alttexthalloffame That's so good. 😂

2025-09-07 17:43:23

Orion Ussner kidder

OrionKidder@mas.to

@alttexthalloffame I can't remember what it's called, but this has a name in accessibility design, the idea that accessibility doesn't *block* anyone. It's all still open to everyone. Abled people will talk about accessible design as if it keeps them from using it, but that's just not the case.

2025-09-07 17:56:03

Jellyfriend :jellybin:

jellyfriend@plush.city

@alttexthalloffame <people who also want to add a bonus joke along with the description>

2025-09-07 17:59:51

Jupiter Rowland

jupiter_rowland@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@Alt Text Hall of Fame "People wondering WTF they're looking at" need an explanation.

But: Explanations do not go into the alt-text! Ever!

That's because not everyone can access alt-text, just like not everyone can see the image in an image post. And yes, this may be due to a physical disability.

Any information that's only in the alt-text, but neither in the post text nor in the image itself, is inaccessible and therefore permanently lost to these people.

Explanations always go into the post text body where everyone can access them!

Money quote-posts from someone who actually does have a physical disability that keeps her from accessing alt-texts:

Deborah schrieb den folgenden Beitrag Mon, 10 Jul 2023 17:56:06 +0200

@jupiter_rowland “Done right also means accessibility for people who might not know much about your image's subject matter either.” The person who posted this is simply flat out incorrect. Alt text is INACCESSIBLE to many disabled people. If the extra text is important, it needs to be in visible text.

Deborah schrieb den folgenden Beitrag Mon, 10 Jul 2023 23:30:45 +0200

@jupiter_rowland

I have a disability that prevents me from seeing alt text, because on almost all platforms, seeing the alt requires having a screenreader or working hands. If you post a picture, is there info that you want somebody who CAN see the picture but DOESN’T have working hands to know? Write that in visible text. If you put that in the alt, you are explicitly excluding people like me.

But you don’t have to overthink it. The description of the image itself is a simple concept.

CC so that everyone in this thread will read this, even if they're on Mastodon: @Amy Maybe @{christophequeret@mastodon.green} @Sir Toootenstein @Orion Ussner kidder

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #AltText #AltTextMeta #CWAltTextMeta

2025-09-07 18:05:08

Konstruct 🦈 :autism:

konstruct@woof.tech

@alttexthalloffame don't forget people who are lost and understand the joke thanks to it as well

2025-09-07 18:13:05

Askan 🇪🇺

askans@bonn.social

@alttexthalloffame yes, but it always means extra effort. I hope it is worth it. I have no idea if my ALT text is being used by anybody

2025-09-07 18:42:15

Arlon

arlon@social.harpia.red

@alttexthalloffame Also people that are learning a given language

2025-09-07 19:05:28

Lukas

lukas@bark.lgbt

@alttexthalloffame
bottom right is a feel

2025-09-07 19:22:33

Andrew Woods

awoodsnet@phpc.social

@alttexthalloffame I’d like to see this drawn as a group hug 😁

2025-09-07 19:25:57

devolute

devolute@mastodon.social

@alttexthalloffame I know it's terribly unfashionable to say so, but also #SEO

2025-09-07 19:34:24

jplebreton@mastodon.social

@alttexthalloffame also great for searching! "what was that funny image of a cat i posted last year?" etc

2025-09-07 19:47:58

Rich Puchalsky ⩜⃝

richpuchalsky@mastodon.social

@alttexthalloffame

Alt text is useful for some projects because most Mastodon servers will let you put a lot more text in the alt text than in the actual text.

https://mastodon.social/@richpuchalsky/112022669158621670

2025-09-07 19:56:50

Aedius Filmania ⚙️🎮🖊️

Aedius@lavraievie.social

@alttexthalloffame

future people when the image will be deleted

2025-09-07 20:10:02

TobiWanKenobi

TobiWanKenobi@kolektiva.social

@alttexthalloffame

If I could, I'd triple boost this!

2025-09-07 20:48:07

Tofu :blobcatace:

tofu@is-a.cat

@alttexthalloffame what about searchability? that is like one of the things I think of instantly, having a textual description of images that is relevant to their context makes it much easier to search for them

2025-09-07 21:47:49

64 Islands Aroha Cooperative

airshipper@cloudisland.nz

@alttexthalloffame @sidawson my server is not loading images right now, and the alt text is keeping the fomo at manageable levels!

2025-09-07 22:03:47

Auntie Mame

ymasumac@mstdn.social

@alttexthalloffame Ehich Mastodon was apps have the ability to add alt text? Because mine doesn’t.

2025-09-07 22:12:39

Pxl Phile

ppxl@social.tchncs.de

@alttexthalloffame now with this as consent, please set your text language in mastodon so we can translate it easily to our own language 😘👌🏾

2025-09-07 23:10:52

Pinky

pinky@aus.social

@alttexthalloffame my app has a filter that hides images that don't use alttext. Sadly, my feed sometimes has more posts hidden than not

2025-09-07 23:12:23

ArchaeoIain

ArchaeoIain@archaeo.social

@alttexthalloffame but my publisher used AI to write the ALT text and it was often wrong.

2025-09-08 00:00:15

voxphoto

voxphoto@a2mi.social

@alttexthalloffame [people who have additional snarky commentary that they prefer to leave out of the main toot]

2025-09-08 00:23:14

Su_G

Su_G@aus.social

@alttexthalloffame
Often in that “People wondering WTF they're looking at” group myself, when I really really appreciate ALT text, thank you to everyone who makes the effort to do it! 😁

2025-09-08 00:30:59

Asbestos

Asbestos@pnw.zone

@alttexthalloffame
strongly in the "people wondering WTF they're looking at" camp

2025-09-08 00:38:06

Ten Thousand Worlds

tenthousandworlds@retro.pizza

@alttexthalloffame

Oh, I’m definitely “people wondering WTF they’re looking at”.

2025-09-08 00:39:49

contrasocial

contrasocial@mastodon.social

@alttexthalloffame

Also, just out of frame; people who can't read the content in an image because someone thought it'd be a cool idea to overlay the button over the actual image.

2025-09-08 00:46:02

ScriptFanix💍⏚ ⸫

ScriptFanix@maly.io

@alttexthalloffame And if you're disabled yourself and that somehow prevents you from writing an alt text, there is a hashtag for that: # Atlt4Me. And people will respond with # Alt4You. And then you can edit to add the alt to the original

2025-09-08 02:02:58

Morgan ⚧️

raphaelmorgan@disabled.social

@alttexthalloffame people with learning disabilities when the picture/video has shitty font 🤝 colorblind people when the picture/video has bad contrast 🤝 people with impaired hearing or audio processing when the video has sound (or when it's an audio file, obviously)
And, if there are clients that let you hide sensitive media but still see the alt text: people who want to know what's in the picture but don't want the people around them seeing it because it's obscene or embarrassing

2025-09-08 02:32:50

Deathmaster Megalodon Ultrakill 9000

alicedotjpog@wetdry.world

@alttexthalloffame except for me

2025-09-08 04:52:51

grepe

grepe@ieji.de

@alttexthalloffame you forgot AI training data scraper bots...

2025-09-08 06:01:55

nerdwoman

nerdwoman@infosec.exchange

@alttexthalloffame Autistic people whiffing on a joke/reference! Man I love when I get alt text to explain what I’m supposed to be laughing at. Whiffing feels awful

2025-09-08 09:30:05

Hélène

Helene@piaille.fr

@alttexthalloffame and people making a search !

2025-09-08 09:35:54

lobingera

lobingera@chaos.social

@alttexthalloffame

Team "Lower, right"

2025-09-08 09:44:35

nojhan à la gauche de Devadata

nojhan@mamot.fr

@alttexthalloffame I'm surprised nobody mentioned that a GAFAMs arm is missing. Alt-text is also of great value for training AIs.

2025-09-08 09:50:36

Dr. Dek 👨‍🚀🐧🚀 )

portaloffreedom@social.linux.pizza

@alttexthalloffame i might add "people reading an image with text in a language unknown on them" including comics :)

2025-09-08 15:22:13

Шуро

shuro@friends.deko.cloud

@Alt Text Hall of Fame the only things missing are shiny robotic limbs of AI scrappers and glistening tentacles of search engine crawlers :)