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2024-12-26 19:18:39

kagan@wandering.shop

Here's a good example of #AltText writing: https://raru.re/@cafou/113713832123756670

1) "Yellow and red poster" succinctly conveys the style and also the mood. (To be clear, leaving out the colors, or the "poster" description, would still have been OK! But including them improved it.)

1/3

#accessibility #a11y

2024-12-26 19:19:47

Kagan MacTane (he/him)

kagan@wandering.shop

2) Strong rule of thumb: if there's text in the image, reproduce all of that text. Don't skip some, unless it's really, clearly, unimportant.

In this case, the alt writer did the right thing in terms of the order, by putting the most significant text (the largest, most noticeable stuff) first, and then the smaller stuff that wraps around it.

2/3

#AltText #accessibility #a11y

2024-12-26 19:20:00

Kagan MacTane (he/him)

kagan@wandering.shop

3) Describing the zig-zaggy banner stuff wasn't necessary. Alt texts need to include "enough for someone to get the gist of the image", but they don't have to include *every detail*. You can relax about stuff like that, and this is a good example.

3/3

#AltText #accessibility #a11y

2024-12-26 21:50:59

Jupiter Rowland

jupiter_rowland@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@Kagan MacTane Of course, what details need to be described depends on the answer to this question:

Is there a chance that someone who can't see the image might be curious about what an element in the image looks like while definitely not knowing what it looks like?

If the answer is, "Yes," then describing that element is at least justified, if not even mandatory. In this case, inclusion overrules convenience.

Beyond that, I've got four things to criticise about the alt-text in that post.

One, double quotation marks from the keyboard do not belong into alt-text. Two, line feeds do not belong into alt-text either. Just because Mastodon renders both as intended, doesn't mean everything renders them as intended.

Hubzilla renders double quotes from the keyboard as &⁠quot;. (streams) cuts the alt-text off at the first double quote because it internally uses double quotes as alt-text delimiters. When there's a double quote from the keyboard in alt-text, (streams) thinks it marks the end of the alt-text.

Three, URLs don't belong into alt-text because they can't be opened by a browser from alt-text.

Four, about the URL again, there must never be any information exclusively available in alt-text. Not everyone can access alt-text. Some people are prevented from accessing alt-text due to various physical disabilities. Any information available only in alt-text, but neither in the post itself nor in the image is inaccessible and therefore lost to them.

Explanations of any kind go into the post, regardless of character limits.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #AltText #AltTextMeta #CWAltTextMeta #Inclusion #Inclusivity #A11y #Accessibility