@hannah@social.alt-text.org
@hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

hannah

@hannah@social.alt-text.org

Founder, Alt-Text.org. Trans. Disabled. Anarchist.

Stay Kind

(she/her)

Bio pic: Me giving a talk, the slide behind me is "The problem(s) with AI: It doesn't understand context"

Header: "Alt-Text.org", white on a library green.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

hannah, to random
@hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

I posted about brain cancer and hope to find people to pick up the torch on my accessibility projects that I think could help make the web better. I have a major surgery May 29th and time is short. I will only become less able.

Summaries and links can be found here: https://github.com/alt-text-org/in-need-of-adoption

I'm happy to answer any questions, or just discuss things, but I do ask that kind words on cancer not be posted here, despite my appreciation for them.

Boosts and sharing elsewhere appreciated.

💜 Hannah

hannah, to accessibility
@hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

Hi friends,

The http://alt-text.org alt text library project needs a new leader, because I have brain cancer.

I would like to connect with the dev community, something I have never figured out, probably in part for neurodivergence reasons. I want to hand the project off to a team or a leader if anyone is willing to take it over.

Github: https://github.com/alt-text-org
WIP MVP: a site designed for writing alt text with a private library: https://my.alt-text.org

Boosts appreciated

hannah,
@hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

I've made another post with a link to a more shareable and complete description of the project and needs. It also includes descriptions of other smaller projects in need to adoption alongside or separately

https://social.alt-text.org/@hannah/112396092237603547

💜 Hannah

hannah, to accessibility
@hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

This is pulling data from an image of a table into a browsable table. It definitely seems promising. Far from perfect, but this is a proof of concept after all. Huge thanks to @jakobrosin for the idea of using a table.

Based on my previous tweet, this could very well be novel. If anyone who relies on a screen reader could try it out and give me any feedback, it'd be so appreciated.

https://2d-ocr.glitch.me/

hannah,
@hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

@miki Hmm, I'm not a big fan of AI as it exists today, so I'm not really sure what it would be fixing. Could you expand on that?

hannah,
@hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

@miki I think there's potential there, but there's some definite lower-hanging fruit. It has coordinate data for every character, but the API is grouping them across lines. If someone more familiar with image processing wanted to step up and write a quick "find all the dividing lines in an image", that would do wonders.

hannah, to random
@hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

I'm working on a proof of concept for a future https://my.alt-text.org plugin. it could enable folks to navigate images of tables with the arrow keys. Questions:

  • Is this available elsewhere? I have experience in this area, but this took me all of 4hr to write so far. It seems like it could be useful

  • Is there a better navigation tool folks can think of over arrow keys?

  • Ideas for an algorithm to traverse between the chunks? When a user presses down, how should the next block be decided?

hannah, to random
@hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

Inaccessible UI/UX is the Undefined Behavior of the languages that form the modern web.

jalcine, to random
@jalcine@todon.eu avatar

I don't see people judging people for having accessibility needs? https://universeodon.com/@FreakyFwoof/110802345358811873 yeah the process isn't the most accessible but that's more reason to contribute knowledge of improving accessibility to do so.

And this still does the communities who are trying to help liberate those from Big Tech because it not erases those who have accessibility concerns who have made the switch from the conversations but also assumes it's not a concern.

Human centered technology centers humans. Profit centered technology centers profits. Both can be accessible. In fact the latter currently gets it faster because it abused the rights and autonomy of people for profit.

hannah,
@hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

@grrrr_shark @jookia @jalcine "Baked in" seems like an appropriate choice of words, I've been saying lately that so many of these problems are in part rooted in the ingredients of the modern web having inaccessibility baked in.

hannah, to random
@hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

> Favoring new features over a11y work is the heart of why the web is so inaccessible. I realize why it's that way, I've been a corporate developer, but that doesn't mean you can't push back on that prioritization. Always pushing a11y work onto the community is not a sign that you value it.

Pickin' fights on https://github.com/orgs/mdn/discussions/430

hannah, to accessibility
@hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

I'm thinking about short form copy for describing how to write good alt text, and I'd love feedback on:

"Good alt text communicates ideas, information, and experiences equitably. What about the image does a person need to know to be a full user of your site or participant in the conversation?"

hannah,
@hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

@siderea Those are both exceptional, and flow so much better than my cold formulation

hannah, to random
@hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

It seems destructive that the "Accessibility Concerns" section of every MDN HTML element page is almost at the bottom. I almost used a <datalist> without knowing that the text in them doesn't zoom because it's so buried.

This is, as far as I'm concerned, the standard web development documentation. Putting accessibility almost last means most people won't see it.

Let's see if anything comes of this: https://github.com/orgs/mdn/discussions/430

hannah, to accessibility
@hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

Some accessibility improvements in flight, which will be released when https://my-alt-text-org.glitch.me is moved to its forever home, hopefully in the next few days. As you might notice, there are some styling issues 😅

I added a command Alt-R, which opens a central, searchable menu of every important command on the site. I've also started adding other direct key-combo commands, here Alt-T is demonstrated to run text extraction.

Screen recording of work in progress my.alt-text.org. It opens to a bare setup, then a menu appears in the middle of the screen. The user types "op" then hits enter, invoking "open file", which opens a file chooser. The user selects a file that's a mastodon screenshot, then invokes another command to begin text extraction. The extraction button lights up in an animated rainbow, then an extracted copy of the text appears, with focus on the textarea

NatureMC, (edited ) to mastodon
@NatureMC@mastodon.online avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    hannah,
    @hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

    @NatureMC Howdy, I'm working on a project I thought you might find interesting. You can get an admittedly still under development look here: https://alt-text-org.github.io/my.alt-text.org/

    The idea is that even mastodon with its OCR capabilities doesn't provide an optimal alt text composer, so we're trying to. Right now it's a static website, soon it will be browser extensions.

    If people are interested in the project, help with testing and development are so welcome.

    hannah, to random
    @hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

    Now that https://my-alt-text-org.glitch.me is alpha-released, I want to renew my call for contributors. I'm particularly looking for folks interested and skilled in:

    • Frontend accessibility
    • Technical writing
    • Translation
    • UI/UX Design
    • Raw Javascript programming
    • Knowledge of the ActivityPub protocol
    • Reactive design

    Check out https://github.com/alt-text-org/my.alt-text.org to get involved.

    hannah, to accessibility
    @hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

    I'm happy to announce the alpha release of https://my-alt-text-org.glitch.me/

    It's a composer built for writing , with a number of features still to come. Highlights of the alpha release:

    • An archive of everything you've composed with it, searchable by text or image
    • OCR with 100+ languages supported
    • Text splitting

    I don't have the skills to make it . If you'd like to help with that or more generally there's a link to the GitHub on the page

    cc: @DemocracySpot

    hannah, to random
    @hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

    I'm happy to announce the alpha release of https://my-alt-text-org.glitch.me/

    It's a composer built for writing alt text, with a number of features still to come. Highlights of the alpha release:

    • An archive of everything you've composed with it, searchable by text or image
    • OCR with 100+ languages supported
    • Text splitting

    I don't have the skills to make it accessible. If you'd like to help with that or more generally there's a link to the GitHub on the page.

    Try it out. Let me know what you think.

    hannah, to random
    @hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

    Someone mentioned the idea of a bulk OCR site with JSON export, so I built a simple one: https://bulk-ocr.glitch.me/

    hannah,
    @hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

    @juandesant @avirr It's a static site, so no option of an API. It's a very niche purpose to be sure, but it's what was requested and it seemed like it could be useful.

    JSON seemed the cleanest computer-parseable way to package the text for later use.

    hannah, to accessibility
    @hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

    The and broader community has stepped up in a big way, and we've reached a good place to start on next steps for https://alt-text.org

    We're still looking to connect with folks who might want to help in the future, especially those who can help us test the accessibility and usability of the project for those who rely on alt text.

    Everyone can help by boosting, and following to get updates.

    hannah, to accessibility
    @hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

    The https://alt-text.org project is moving forward as folks from the community step up. We're still hoping to find someone with firsthand experience in browsing the web relying on alt text to join us.

    A major impediment is funding, because we want to make sure they're paid. We're looking for funding, but it's early.

    If you're interested in the project but only if paid, drop me a line, let's talk. I can be reached here or at hannah@alt-text.org

    Boosts appreciated.

    hannah, to accessibility
    @hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

    Good alt text relies on context, immediate, conversational, and societal. Shared alt text via https://alt-text.org can't provide that, but it can be a place to start, and a better fallback than AI can offer.

    Not perfect, but I hope better.

    ChanceyFleet, to blender

    I’m a Blind technologist and i’ve built the Dimensions Lab for tactile graphics and models at New York Public Library. With the right tools, skill-building opps and community support, Blind people can break out of image poverty and excel at spatial thinking + design. This is me waving hello to folks in & https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/06/15/1074036/ending-image-poverty/amp/

    hannah,
    @hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

    @ChanceyFleet This is not tactile graphics, but I think related. I'm working on taking a project to share alt text across the web from proof-of-concept to reality: https://alt-text.org

    If that's at all interesting, I'm happy to go into more detail here or over email: hannah@alt-text.org.

    hannah, to accessibility
    @hannah@social.alt-text.org avatar

    If you think modern image description AIs write good enough alt text, your standards are too low.

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