How to describe images in the Fediverse: Home
But first...
What this place is
This is my personal wiki about describing images in the Fediverse. It aims to gather information about alt-text and image descriptions from all over the Web in one place. Also, it aims to do so specifically for the Fediverse where things are quite a bit different from static websites, blogs and commercial centralised social networks and social media. In fact, it specifically also aims to look at the Fediverse beyond Mastodon.
As of now, this wiki is still an early work in progress. It is still very incomplete. It is nowhere near finished. Things will change in the future.
By the way: This wiki itself is in the Fediverse. Sure, it is clearly not on Mastodon. You can't even receive anything from it in your Mastodon timeline because it doesn't federate. But it is still in the Fediverse. It is on Hubzilla (Join the Fediverse Wiki article about Hubzilla) which has been part of the Fediverse for longer than Mastodon itself, and Hubzilla has its own built-in, albeit optional, wiki engine.
What this place will do
This wiki will mainly focus on two things. One is how to describe images. The other one is how to write proper alt-text of which you can be sure that it works everywhere.
What this place won't do
One thing I won't do here is walk you through adding alt-text to an image in your specific app, step by step.
In order to be able to do that, I would have to use every Fediverse app myself. But for one, I'm not on a phone. I'm on a PC. I don't use apps. I use Hubzilla with a standard Web browser. Besides, Hubzilla doesn't support Mastodon apps, Misskey apps, Lemmy apps or any other apps. I can only use it in a standard Web browser. Lastly, I can't write walkthroughs for iPhone apps anyway because I don't have an iPhone.
Another thing I won't do is put simplicity over everything else. I won't tell you to "not overthink it" and especially not to "just wing it". I want to at least try to educate you on how to write proper image descriptions, how to put them into proper alt-text, why this is especially important in the Fediverse and what the pitfalls are.
The basics
- Who needs image descriptions or alt-text?
- What is alt-text, and what does it do?
- Why is alt-text important in the Fediverse?
- How are alt-text and image descriptions in the Fediverse different from other places?
- Aren't "alt-text" and "image description" the same?
- I've already described the image in the post! Do I still need an alt-text?
- What does "caption" mean?
- "But I've read somewhere else that you should do it differently!"
- Don't always blame frontend developers!
- Other resources on image descriptions and alt-text
About this wiki
Image descriptions in general
Describing people
- Whether to identify people
- What to include when describing people
- Whether to mention people's body shape
- Don't mention people's race!
- Don't mention people's gender!
Text transcripts
What you must generally avoid in image descriptions
Alt-text in particular
- How long can alt-text be?
- Can everyone access alt-text?
- Isn't alt-text handled the same all over the Fediverse?
What you must not do in alt-text
- Don't explain things or give other information only in alt-text!
- Don't use alt-text to write around your character limit!
- Don't use "image of", "picture of" or "photo of"!
- Don't use line breaks in alt-text!
- Don't use the quotation marks on your keyboard in alt-text!
- Don't use hashtags in alt-text!
- Don't put links into alt-text!