Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   ELLIOTTCABLE (elliottcable@functional.cafe)'s status on Friday, 28-Mar-2025 02:09:58 JST ELLIOTTCABLE

   Boosts apprec:

   Do I have anybody in my social graph who’s vision-impaired enough to be the target of alt-text?

   Realtalk: in 2025, is manual alt text (of OCR-able images, I mean) by humans still a necessary thing that we should be enforcing aggressive social pressure around? /=

   (It feels a little stupid, if random non-specialized-accessibility tooling like consumer phone operating-systems now have near-perfect OCR. I'm not a user of the tools that _are_ specialized for accessibility, but I imagine that they're even more cutting-edge, and have been OCR'ing at least that well for several years now?)

   But, like, I also recognize that I’m not in the target market, there. So where are we? Somebody catch me up. Is this Mastodon culture of alt-text-enforcement just cargo-culting at this point, or does it still have a purpose?

   • Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Bob Jonkman (bobjonkman@mastodon.sdf.org)'s status on Friday, 28-Mar-2025 02:10:54 JST Bob Jonkman

     in reply to

     @ELLIOTTCABLE

     A few years ago I (fully sighted) was invited to a discussion on accessibility for people who are blind or have low vision. While Ontario has disability programs to provide assistive devices, they prescribe specific technologies, often years out-of-date. So while there might be new technology that can OCR text-only images, people using ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Program) often can't use it or afford it.

     TL;DR: Always provide AltText even for text-only images.

     Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     ELLIOTTCABLE (elliottcable@functional.cafe)'s status on Friday, 28-Mar-2025 02:10:55 JST ELLIOTTCABLE

     in reply to

     My question basically applies to images like this one: https://functional.cafe/@ELLIOTTCABLE/114232194309794010

     Trying to describe the contents of a screenshot just feels so pointless, and like a turn-off to usage of the fediverse; but I see _so_ many accounts with something like "I will unfollow you if you post any images without alt-text.”

     It feels like cargo-culting, and I want to check that assumption/feeling of mine against someone with actual experience as the target-market of these things.

   • Embed this notice
     ELLIOTTCABLE (elliottcable@functional.cafe)'s status on Friday, 28-Mar-2025 02:10:56 JST ELLIOTTCABLE

     in reply to

     • nev

     @nev yah, I tried to edit the OP, but I don't think I examined my own assumptions very well. To me, but apparently not everyone else, ‘describe images w/o text in them’ is just an obvious necessity for all consumers - and I always read the aggressive fediverse “you MUST alt ALL the things!!!" as an cover-the-other-bases, accessibility-focused mantra.

   • Embed this notice
     nev (nev@bananachips.club)'s status on Friday, 28-Mar-2025 02:10:58 JST nev

     in reply to

     @ELLIOTTCABLE Wait, how does OCR obviate the need for alt text? Not all images are OCR-able screenshots of text.

     (Personally I often use a terminal client that only loads images in ASCII-art-like rendering; and sometimes the vagaries of federation mean that images don't load, but the alt text does.)