- cross-posted to:
- chapotraphouse@hexbear.net
- cross-posted to:
- chapotraphouse@hexbear.net
The internet has become 3 massive multi-user blogs, each largely consisting of screenshots taken of the other two. This kind of blows, and not just for the usual reasons that may spring to mind.
Images are a terrible medium for online communication! Not everyone online uses a monitor. Any messages contained in a picture is straight up unacceptable without alt-text. It also makes it harder to find and fact check sources, or to spread a thought or idea further than yet another image upload. Copy/pasting text is just plain easier than downloading and uploading.
If you’re going through the trouble of creating an image post, take an extra minuite to copy/past (or even transcribe) the source text into the alt-text submission. It’s not much, but it goes a ways to improving how we use this blasted network!
https://uxdesign.cc/how-to-write-an-image-description-2f30d3bf5546
I’ve always tried to use alt-text when possible, but for inline images I’ve been confused about whether to put the description between the brackets or in quotes in the parentheses. If this thread is anything to go off of, I guess I should do both, or?
There’s also the thing about how to write good descriptions. I’ll have to take a good look through the guide that Edie linked in this thread; I skimmed through it just now and it’s got some good advice.
In a sense it almost feels “easier” to write AD for a video than for a still image, because with video you generally have a hard limit for how long your description can be — just however long the space is between dialog — and you also oftentimes have less you have to describe if the sound design does it for you. But when you’re describing an image, you can just go on and on and on and on and on however long you find reasonable for the target audience. And so I often do.
![alt text goes here]()This doesn’t work on mobile for me! Check my comment on the OP. At least with Fennec mobile
It works the way it’s intended to work. If the text is for everyone just put it in the main text.
The correct thing to make alt text available for screen reader is between the brackets. In quotes in the parentheses is for the title, and while it can be used for screen readers it is usually only done as a last resort.
If you want to make the alt text available for non-accessibility reasons, adding it to the title will allow mouse users to hover over and see it, and for (at least some) mobile users to hold down on the image and get it (see example below), with caveats, e.g. the title gets cut off in my Android browser.Alt text can also be gotten through view source.ⓘ This user is suspected of being a cat. Please report any suspicious behavior.
As I was saying, both is best, since I often put extra context in the alt-texts that people might want to know regardless of vision.
Extra context should go in the title, description should go in the the alt.
Getting the same text read twice isn’t great.
Using title in this way does not seem like a good idea to me. Either put context in the alt, or if its also useful for visually able people in the main text.
ⓘ This user is suspected of being a cat. Please report any suspicious behavior.
Sure. Probably best to avoid the titles.