I'm a Disabled person that wishes more people would use the #Alt4Me hashtag. If you can't write/dictate/put a media description, I'd love it if someone else did it. That hashtag is not just for Blind or low vision people. It's there if you can't provide an media description yourself! There are groups that do the same thing. Anyone should be able to use the tag to request a description without getting harassed for it. If you do provide audio transcripts for an uploaded audio or an image description, tag with #Alt4You so others can find it!
Remember folks, adding alt text to an image is a good and helpful thing to do, but nobody wants it to make you anxious about sharing things when you don't have the energy.
Also, you can edit your posts, including the alt text, whenever you want, so you can do it later too.
There's also tags like #ALT4me where you can signal that you'd like a little help - people can add descriptive text in a reply.
Perfect is the enemy of good.
Actually added text to one of my own after writing this. 🙈
If you’re sighted and you see the hashtag #Alt4Me underneath an image post, it means a blind person wants you to write a description of the image. Reply to the post with the tag and give them the description.
Also, if you’re a sighted person and you see a remarkable image that doesn’t have a description and no one has requested one yet, be pro-active and reply with a description using the tag #Alt4You which will let blind people find your description more easily.
Ja, ich weiß, es nervt, aber ich seh hier wieder vermehrt Posts ohne bildbeschreibung. Wenn ihr keine Löffel dafür habt, nutzt #ALT4me aber gebt mir nicht das Gefühl, dass meine teilhabe euch egal ist. Ich muss es so drastisch ausdrücken, weil ich es so empfinde.
This is a great explainer on the importance of not just adding alt text to all images, but on adding accurately descriptive alt text.
I sometimes get overbearing regarding posts that lack alt text or that don't include alt text that's fully accurate and descriptive.
For example, "Cat", or similarly vague text, is absolutely not good enough when posting an image of a cat, read this to better understand why that's so:
I'm seeing new people posting pictures of cats, which is great, I love cats!
However, I'm also seeing more pictures with no alt text. Alt text is text you add to the picture to describe it. It allows users relying on screen readers to use the Fediverse to appreciate how cute and/or silly your cat is, and doesn't take much time at all.
If you can't do it, use the hashtag #ALT4me to find someone to do it for you.
Something about the #JoyOfAltText: people describing their own images with language that is precise like a signature. The photographs of @HonDuMuc come with a painterly layer of description that brings out secretive detail. Filmmaker @dilmandila describes flowers exactly as you’d expect a filmmaker to do. @paralithode uses the language of careful poetic observation and I learn every time.
I seek out #AltText like someone opening a window in an advent calendar, and every time I’m so grateful to all the screenreader users here like @bright_helpings who keep pointing the way to this intimate space of wonder that makes things better for everyone.
Just adding to this because people are sharing it and in case you don’t know: if you add #alt4me to your post because you haven’t the spoons or language for any reason to add a description for your image, someone can do it for you.
If your image is a screenshot, you can often grab the text from it—your photo app is eager to do this for you.
And if someone comes across your image without a description they can write a description and add #ALT4you.
Fellow members of sfba.social: I’m thrilled to see we’re in the top 50 instances for use of alt text!
However, we're just at 37% — can we please all work to get that number up, as a courtesy to those who are visually impaired? If you don’t have the spoons to add alt text yourself, just include #Alt4Me in your post and someone is likely to help.
I just tested the OCR Image Reader browser extension and it works really well for me to help with providing image descriptions. No more waiting for the OCR bot 🙂
Available for Firefox and Chromium-based browsers (Chrome, Edge, Opera etc.)
WOW! just perused the image gallery for the #MetGala over at Harper's Bazaar and it's not only super-uninspiring, but for maybe a couple of people who understood the assignment. it's the beauty aesthetics of most of the people attending that is very late-stage capitalism with a bad take on trans-humanism. the 1% and their millionaire lackeys are really into that waxy Real Doll skin aesthetics. baffling.