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An infographic. There are six panels. 1. "Slow internet. Alt text is shown in place of unloaded images." a drawing shows a phone with poor signal, and alt text is visible where the image should have loaded. 2. "Findabillity. Alt text helps <br />to search content." A drawing shows someone searching 'dog with banana' and a post is shown underneath without the words 'dog' or 'banana'. It is implied to be part of the alt text. 3. "Screen readers. Alt is read out to people using <br />text-to-speech software". There is a drawing of the output a screen-reader would show when viewing an image with alt text on bluesky. 4. "Translation. Alt text can be translated". A drawing shows a post being translated. The alt text is <br />also translated into german. 5. "Readability. Text in images can be made legible" There is a drawing of some truly awful handwriting inside a speech bubble. The alt text clarifies what the text is supposed to say. 6. "Disambiguation. <br />Description helps clarify intent." There is a drawing of a post with a picture of a creature. This is styled after the famous optical illusion of a rabbit and a duck. The alt text clarifies that the animal is a rabbit. It definitely looks more like a <br />duck.

Fri, 08 Nov 2024 23:47:24 +0100

ipg@wetdry.world

from alex (dremenec.com):

Generally we think of alt-text as the domain of those with accessibility needs.

However alt-text is useful for many reasons, which benefit your viewers, as well as you, the creator!

show all 33 comments

Fri, 08 Nov 2024 23:47:32 +0100

Emma (IPG)

ipg@wetdry.world

original post: https://bsky.app/profile/dremenec.com/post/3l7m5k5yfbk2a

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 01:19:54 +0100

Zuthal

zuthal@floofy.tech

@ipg also: when someone posts a picture of a celebrity or politician and you would recognise the name but you are bad at recognising people visually

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 02:59:43 +0100

Xenotime (formerly Residual Entropy)

re@fuzzies.wtf

@ipg I can definitely vouch for the slow internet case lol

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 03:50:49 +0100

CaliCarol

jawarajabbi@mastodon.online

@ipg Yes! I asked a question of a poster about their image and they said it was in the alt text and honestly that was how I figured out about alt texts many uses!

And hey #alttext folks. Here's another accessibility hack: your hashtags should use "camel back" lettering. #AltText not #alttext . This is for folks who utilize certain listening aids: without the clear word separation of a capital letter the readers can completely garble the meaning.

#Mastodon #AltText

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 06:11:44 +0100

:gaysperenby: Cello_not_violin :neocat_flag_nb:

Cello@kitsunes.club

@ipg@wetdry.world also for nature photographers to post the species’ names so i don’t need to describe what they look like to google- rarely worked for plants

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 07:23:34 +0100

sabik

sabik@rants.au

@ipg @alshra
Another way alt text can be useful is identifying people, e.g. government ministers — which minister, which country / state

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 10:46:16 +0100

Leonard Ritter

lritter@mastodon.gamedev.place

@ipg and machine learning! 😏

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 11:30:16 +0100

Lukadjo

lukadjo@app.wafrn.net

@ipg A lot of accessibility accomodations, from ramps to alt text, help far more more people than you might think on first thought

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 11:45:04 +0100

Siobhán Sarelle

siobhansarelle@mastodon.social

@ipg I think in some places, Alt Text works for filtering as well

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 12:35:38 +0100 zuletzt bearbeitet: Sat, 09 Nov 2024 12:35:52 +0100

fops

chfour@wetdry.world

@ipg and on the websites in general if the picture as in the file disappears or fails to load, the alt text is shown instead next to that "broken picture" icon

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 12:45:30 +0100

Jupiter Rowland

jupiter_rowland@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@Emma (IPG) The readability aspect is interesting. It directly contradicts those who say that if text is illegible in the image, it doesn't have to or even mustn't be transcribed. And I myself go as far as transcribing text that's so tiny that it's invisible.

But: Information that is not available in the image and not in the actual post either must never go into the alt-text!

Not everyone can access alt-text. Not everyone is on a phone. Not all possible frontends support alt-text. And some people are phyiscally incapable of accessing alt-text, for example, because they can't use a pointing device such as a mouse or a trackball.

If information is only available in the alt-text and nowhere else, it is completely inaccessible and therefore lost to a whole lot of people.

Thus, explanations must always go somewhere where they can access them, ideally into the post.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #AltText #AltTextMeta #CWAltTextMeta #ImageDescription #ImageDescriptions #ImageDescriptionMeta #CWImageDescriptionMeta #A11y #Accessibility

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 13:56:52 +0100

Level 20 Moss

CrebboElodie@transfem.social

@ipg@wetdry.world I don't get why it's so hard for people to understand this

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 13:57:33 +0100

Ember 🏳️‍⚧️ [@38C3]

ember@blahaj.zone

@ipg@wetdry.world okay but where is the dog with the banana on its head? i want to see the dog...

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 14:23:10 +0100

Jupiter Rowland

jupiter_rowland@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@Siobhán Sarelle Yes, for example, Friendica, Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte integrate images along with their alt-texts into the posts. Thus, both filters and automatic generation of reader-side content warnings should be triggered by what's in the alt-texts.

CC: @Emma (IPG)

#FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #AltText #AltTextMeta #CWAltTextMeta #Friendica #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 14:32:10 +0100

Justin Time

justintime@livellosegreto.it

@ipg since I am very bad to describe the images, is the bot that describe the image in the first comment, a useful workaround? Or do I have to copy the bot generated text in my image?

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 16:06:15 +0100

Rusty Bertrand

RustyBertrand@kolektiva.social

@ipg
Do not attack disabled people for not writing alt text. This is not a fresh new bone for you to batter people with.

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 17:41:49 +0100

⏣ (nut)

xarvos@outerheaven.club

@ipg those are accessibility needs tho. accessible means, well, being able to access, not just euphemism for disability

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 18:01:46 +0100

hacknorris

hacknorris@mstdn.social

@ipg
7th reason : training AIs…
:/

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 18:04:04 +0100

Sue Briccay :verifiedace:

essjayjay@tech.lgbt

@ipg

All those things.
Plus it can be a great vehicle for mischief and subversion.

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 18:16:19 +0100 zuletzt bearbeitet: Sat, 09 Nov 2024 18:16:33 +0100

Dave Rahardja

drahardja@sfba.social

@ipg You can also put humorous or snide commentary in there like an Easter egg. In addition to an actual description, of course.

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 18:45:49 +0100

Lillian Violet

GLaDTheresCake@todon.nl

@RustyBertrand @ipg If you can't write your own alt text there's a hashtag you can add to your posts; # Alt4Me (without the space in between). This tells people you want them to write alt text because you're unable to for whatever reason, but did consider the needs of others. You can then add the alt text people write for you by editing your post :)

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 19:24:55 +0100

Orb 2069

Orb2069@mastodon.online

@jupiter_rowland
And putting extra data in the alt text might mess up people trying to train AI with mastodon image content.

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 19:30:58 +0100

papush

papush@outerheaven.club

@ipg also on fedi at least, if you look at a post from an instance that since went down you're likely only going to get the alt text

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 19:48:50 +0100

robin

esoterra@hachyderm.io

@ipg plus having a copy-able version of text in an image!

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 19:51:51 +0100

Gegenwind :antifa:🇺🇳🖖

Gegenwind@chaos.social

@ipg dont forget: for ready tagged AI trainings data! 🦾🤖

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 20:00:11 +0100

JimmyChezPants

jpaskaruk@growers.social

@ipg

I greatly appreciate this content. But your alt-text needs the heading ("why use alt text") added, which, let's not lie to ourselves, is very funny. :>

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 20:19:46 +0100

rail :neofox::therian:

rail_@bark.lgbt

@ipg content findability but also ability to filter

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 21:34:13 +0100

RussianDeepStateSock

Milkman76@mastodon.social

@ipg don't forget efficient AI ingestion! That's certainly in the list.

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 22:56:59 +0100 zuletzt bearbeitet: Sat, 09 Nov 2024 22:57:09 +0100

Gold gab ich für Eisen

nanoelquant@c.im

@ipg "Translation. Alt text can be translated" - in the web interface of mastodon, I see no way to translate an image alt text (contrary to the normal text of the post) - actually, even the possibility to see it if the image can be loaded appeared on my server only days ago...

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 23:11:12 +0100

Niavy :bearn: :verified:

niavy@masto.bike

@ipg
@cmconseils ⤴️
@dbenoist

Sun, 10 Nov 2024 03:29:50 +0100

Ángela Stella Matutina

angelastella@social.treehouse.systems

@jupiter_rowland

So someone will miss my stupid jokes. I'm devastated.

Sun, 10 Nov 2024 07:37:12 +0100

Big Pawed Bear

bigpawedbear@masto.nu

@ipg also AI can help with alt text, show it the photo and it'll have a go. check the AI response for holusinations etc, then post the AI output as the alt text.

Sun, 10 Nov 2024 23:17:15 +0100

Howard Chu @ Symas

hyc@mastodon.social

@ipg seems like alt text is only viewable on desktop browsers. Haven't seen how to view it on phone browsers.