In the community where I live there’s a winding path that cuts through densely overgrown scrub to the beach. At one point the path meets a little creek and many people could jump over it.
Over the past 20 years, many little informal bridges have been built, and when they give way someone replaces them. This lets kids on bikes and others who can’t jump use the path. The latest is magnificent, we’re all in awe. Someone came down with power tools after the big floods and did this. We’re all benefiting.
This is the #JoyOfAltText to me: if you have the resources and make a bridge (simple or complex, depending on what you’ve got to give) everyone gets to use the path.
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.