You may or may not have noticed that when you upload a pic that there's an option to add alt text to the picture so that people who are visually impaired can know what the pic is.
It only takes a few seconds and helps to add to the richness and inclusiveness that helps make Mastodon the unique place that it is.
I know it's not what you are used to, but once you get in the habit, you'll find it's easy to do, and your followers will appreciate it.
And hey, new people - nothing says you have to be 'just the facts, ma'am' in your alt text. Boris Johnson can be 'paunchy middle-aged man with a bad haircut' and ppl who rely on alt text enjoy it when you describe colors (which makes two kinds of 'color'). Be verbose - be descriptive - be snarky! #AltText
@servelan@Mrfunkedude And also! don't overcook your descriptions unnecessarily. Like, if you're sharing a funny picture of a cat falling into mud, you can probably ignore any details that don't make it funny. The cat's expression? Priceless! The colour of the grass next to the mud pool? Who cares.
But also also! take all this advice as just... tips and pointers. These aren't rules. Writing these descriptions is an act of kindness so that people who are unable to see your images (Maybe they are blind. Maybe they have "autoload images" turned off to save bandwidth. You're helping them either way) and it will always be appreciated.
@Mrfunkedude Thank you for this information! I was unaware of the reasoning behind this added space for text, I will absolutely start to fill this out now on.
@Mrfunkedude Seconding this, but with the addendum that if you have some cognitive or physical disability that makes adding these descriptions difficult, that's ok! You can use the #alt4me tag and other's can help you with descriptions :shinx_happy:
@Mrfunkedude I should do this more often but an issue i should be worried about in the future is the quality of these Alt. Texts and whether they're even detailed enough to help assist.
@Mrfunkedude this is all very interesting. Is there a way I can disable the alt text? The little tag is driving me nuts, I literally just spent the last hour trying to figure out if it’s possible to disable it server side. I have dyslexia, extra test on images is not my friend.
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