In a similar vein, alt-text your image posts here!
In a similar vein, alt-text your image posts here!
crossposted from https://wandering.shop/@meredithw/113983437672884349
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Just realized I've seen the push multiple times to include alt text, but not guidance on how.
Is there an actual etiquette to follow or even a specific format for alt text? Or just a sentence describing the image and call it a day?
Maybe this blog post is of use. Good Alt Text, Bad Alt Text — Making Your Content Perceivable.
If you don't feel like reading the entire post you can skip to "Writing good alt text — Context is key".
I have soooooo many alt texts to add to my previous posts. Holy hell...
The Web Accessibility Initiative has tons of content. For images, you can start from their tips to get started & tutorials that links to.
Here specifically, you can learn how to set alt text in markdown.
Ok, that's helpful for providing alt text for images inside the body of a post.
Bus what about image posts? When using the web interface I don't see any opportunity for entering the alt text. 🤔
When using the web interface I don’t see any opportunity for entering the alt text.
Apparently, some instances offer it: you might want to ask your instance administrator to upgrade. If yours doesn't offer it, the text alternative can be adjacent as stated in the success criterion for non-text content
All non-text content that is presented to the user has a text alternative that serves the equivalent purpose
and the techniques for it identified with prefix G. The
altattribute is merely 1 way to accomplish that.When it's a screenshot of a webpage, a link to the source makes sense as a text alternative, but it might make more sense to eliminate the need for a text alternative altogether. I see way too many images that could be blockquotes & links, which are often superior to an image: more accessible & more useful to everyone else. That's often the case of good accessibility: it benefits everyone else.
I tend to explain what it is, and what is the important part. Thinking about it from the perspective of what someone might need to know while also respecting their time. I think "Screen shot of Lemmy post feed with nav bar at top, first post says "blah", second post says "blah blah", third post says...", I think that's too much unnecessary detail. So I'd do something like "Screen shot of Lemmy post feed, showing the third post called "Blah blah" has a green highlight over the first word" or whatever the message is I'm trying to get across with the screenshot.
I don't know if there is etiquette or a specific format but I would write as much as is needed to convey the reason you're including the image (whether that is a sentence or 100 words), striking a balance between making sure someone who is relying on the alt text can understand everything they need to know while also respecting their time.