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In a couple of different places on Mastodon this week I’ve seen people saying something to the effect of “what does visible alt text matter, it’s for screen readers.”

Here are just a few scenarios why people might want to view alt text visually:

1. “I made the post and I want to double check the alt text I wrote.”
2. “I did not make the post but I want to learn how other people write alt text so I can write better descriptions.”
3. “I’m having trouble making sense of the image but I think a written description would help.”
4. “My vision is enough to read text at my preferred font size but not in a tiny screenshot with jpeg compression.”
5. “This is what works best for me because of reasons I don’t want to get into.”

Accessibility is for everyone. Try not to make assumptions.
Kat Marchán 🐈
Kat Marchán 🐈  
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I think it's understated how much rich context can be added in alt text too, tbh, which can directly benefit everyone. xkcd obviously took this too far by not actually describing the images themselves, but there's something in between that enriches us all!
Anna Nicholson
Anna Nicholson  
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@zkat Randall Munroe uses title text (a different HTML attribute) for the xkcd mouseovers, so gets a pass 😉

I don’t feel that using alt text to add extra information is ideal: (a) people who rely on alt text (screenreader users and others) can’t filter out the extra info; and (b) people who don’t need the alt text probably won’t see the extra info 🤔
@Kat Marchán 🐈
Richard Barrell
Richard Barrell  
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@zkat xkcd has both title set to the joke text *and* he also sets alt. Alas he sets alt to just the title of the comic, not a description of it.

it's unfortunately confusing that the thing people *call* the "alt text" on webcomics is actually the title attribute, not the alt.

explainxkcd has people writing decent image descriptions for xkcd strips.

I think oglaf's author sets both alt= and title= to 2 different jokes on each strip. I've know of no other comic putting jokes in both.
@Kat Marchán 🐈
This entry was edited (1 year ago)
Richard Barrell
Richard Barrell  
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@zkat Also shout out to https://white-noise-comic.com for being one of extremely few comics I've seen actually take visual accessibility seriously. I can't remember if there's alt text on the img tag itself but the author posts prose that matches the contents of the image under every strip. For the purpose of practical accessibility for a webcomic this is IME way better than using the alt attribute.

White Noise

white-noise-comic.com
@Kat Marchán 🐈
This entry was edited (1 year ago)
FiXato
FiXato  
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@0x2ba22e11 a while ago I spent some time describing the second "Jon" comic by Gale Galligan as the original didn't include image descriptions, and I liked the comic so much that I felt it was worth the effort to describe it so that others might be able to enjoy it too.
The process sure was more labour intensive than I'd originally anticipated, but I'd like to think I did a decent job: https://fixato.org/projects/described_for_you/jon2.html
I'm sure the HTML itself could be made more accessible, and ideally each page is accompanied by the actual images, which I skipped because I didn't want to hotlink them without the author's permission. I did link them the page via Twitter, but never got a response unfortunately.
@zkat @arjache

jon 2

Jon 2 2018, 19 pagesSelf-publishedA second Garfield fancomic considering the life of Jon Arbuckle, cartoonist. Buy the mini! Previous Next
Gale Galligan
@Kat Marchán 🐈 @Richard Barrell @Rachel Stantz
Becky
Becky  
I'm on friendica and I still haven't quite figured out alt text. I want to sometime soon, but what I thought it was, either wasn't or I couldn't verify. I do use descriptions as part of my post though, so the post goes like:
Text
Pucture
Description of picture

I just have to hope it's better than nothing until I figure out the alt text stuff
Becky
Becky  
Thanks!! I might experiment and try to see if it works if I get the chance tonight. I'm constantly impressed at how friendica folk are ready to help other friendica pals with the knowledge of the things 🥰
the account formerly known as Luna
the account formerly known as Luna  
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also 6. “I want to boost this post, but I want to be sure it’s accessible”
Erik
Erik  
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I did a little poll on this recently and almost all of the hundreds of sighted people who answered said that they got something out of the alt text.

Also, not everyone with sight loss who might benefit from a screenreader has access to one (or has the skills/ability to use it). And trying to say it should be hidden away feels really gross to me. :/ I'm glad I haven't seen that, I probably wouldn't react well!
Chaz Brenchley
Chaz Brenchley  
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@bright_helpings - this, yeah. I really enjoy alt text.
@Erik
Josiah Mannion
Josiah Mannion  
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@ChazBrenchley @bright_helpings I'm *genuinely* enjoying what *writing* alt text reveals to me about the subtext of my own photos. It's not that I've never thought, even thought deeply, about it. But in the process of taking a photo, that can only occur in a flash (pun not originally intended), in background. Bringing it out & having to put words to it without just saying, "This is meaning," that is, still leaving interpretation open, is super cool.
@Erik @Chaz Brenchley
FiXato
FiXato  
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one point I couldn't find in the replies: "the image is a screenshot of some text, and I would like to just be able to copy the actual text to share with others".
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