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2026-07-12 02:30:39

strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz

@jevvv
> While i LOVE the use of alt-text and want to see it normalised, sadly I am a poor alt-texter

I wonder if there's a way to embed alt-text in the metadata of image files? If so, image editing software could make it a standard part of image creation workflows. Then social software could read and display that metadata when alt-text is requested by screen readers, etc, with no extra steps required during posting.

#AltText #ScreenReaders #ImageEditing

2026-07-12 03:19:22

jevvv🇳🇿

jevvv@mastodon.nz

@strypey ooo I like your thinking!

2026-07-12 09:51:38

Jupiter Rowland

jupiter_rowland@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@jevvv🇳🇿 @Strypey The downside would be that the image would always have the same alt-text. This is bad.

Alt-text should always adapt to the context and the audience. Depending on the context, different things in the image could be important. A personal blog or a static website requires different image descriptions than posting on social media, and commercial silos have culturally different requirements for acceptable image descriptions than the Fediverse with an audience mostly on Mastodon.

Blogs and static websites have limited audiences, namely those who actively seek them out. If you blog about a super-obscure topic, you can be certain that everyone who reads your blog is familiar with that topic. If you post the self-same images on social media, people receive them who don't know diddly-squat about the topic, so different descriptions are necessary.

If you write a 150-character alt-text, you conform with Web standards when you use it on your website, but Mastodon users may scold you for describing your image too little when you use it in the Fediverse.

If you write a Mastodon-compatible alt-text with 1,000 characters, Mastodon users may celebrate it and mention it to the @Alt Text Hall of Fame, but Web accessibility experts will scold you for your alt-text being too long if you dare to use it for an image on a static website (also, Misskey/Sharkey/Iceshrimp-JS users may scold you for allegedly not writing any alt-text at all because Misskey and all Forkeys delete alt-texts with over 512 characters due to a bug).

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #AltText #AltTextMeta #CWAltTextMeta #ImageDescription #ImageDescriptions #ImageDescriptionMeta #CWImageDescriptionMeta