One of the things I have liked about Mastodon is the encouragement to put alt-text on images. But as others have noticed, the more the network of mastodonians grows, the proportion of images with alt-text goes down.
It's not hard - please please PLEASE add alt-text to your images, even if it's just a quick note, and better if it's more descriptive.
Will remind you if you forget and if you don't want to go in and actually redo the whole thing, you can always push the thread down one and describe what was in the attachment
@SisterArtemis
I am new and I have no idea what that means.
@klaartuu
It's a way to add a description to images, built into the window where you write posts.
I don't understand all the techie pieces, but it provides a way for people to have their computers put voice to the description of the image.
When you create a post, and add an image (& before you click "toot" to post it), click the link in the upper right corner, and a window will pop up where you can type the description. Once it's posted, you can hover a mouse pointer over it to see the text.
@SisterArtemis amazing. I’ll try to remember, if I post an image.
@klaartuu
I had to walk myself through the procedure to check what I wrote before - when you add an image, click the "edit" linkie in the upper right corner of the image.
An interesting bit is that the character limit for alt-text is much longer than a post. You can really get detailed, but in this link another user shared earlier, you want to tailor the descriptions for the audience you think you are talking to. This article is very helpful:
https://uxdesign.cc/how-to-write-an-image-description-2f30d3bf5546
@SisterArtemis thanks again. I’ll play with it tomorrow!
@SisterArtemis @Wester_Hare there’s a setting that reminds you to add before posting. I normally remember but it helps!
@harrym @SisterArtemis @Wester_Hare Another option is the PleaseCaptionBot. If you follow it, it follows you and if you fail to caption an item, you be reminded that you failed. You then have the option (depending if it's supported by your app) of editing the post to include a caption.
@peemee @SisterArtemis @Wester_Hare we stan a nice bot
As I keep repeating like some kind of deranged parrot, not only is it the right thing to do but also fun with a purpose. A little word challenge. People _pay_ for these, right? Here they're free!
@SisterArtemis It is a little hard, at least for me. But it’s a good hard. For one thing, increases accessibility, which is surely a good thing. For another, gets me to think about what I think the image is about, what I am trying to share.
@dstephenlindsay
Both good points, but that second one - making us think - that's a really good one.
@SisterArtemis @stufromoz It’s something that I had never considered before joining mastodon and so I thank the wider group for the education on this. I found a bit of a quirk between different apps that I’ve been trying. I haven’t been successful with adding descriptive when using the Mastodon app but have been able to when using the Toot app. Alt-text added on the Toot app hasn’t been visible when I have then checked using the Mastodon app. I haven’t tried other apps yet to see what they are like with this function.
@woluf @SisterArtemis the Mastodon app is known for not supporting a lot of things that the website does
@stufromoz @SisterArtemis Thank-you, I didn’t know that. I’ve found the font size a bit more user friendly than Toot but so far have found myself drifting to using Toot more.
@woluf @SisterArtemis there are a number of other apps that work better than the official one. There was no work done on it for some time
@SisterArtemis #Photography Thanks for this. I will try. I'm slowly learning the syntax and protocols on this site.
@SisterArtemis and adding capitals to hashtags saves confusion with things like TheRapist/ Therapist & PenIsland etc
@SisterArtemis I'm trying to only boost posts with images if they have good alt text - and NOT boost any that don't. That can be frustrating when the post is good otherwise. It just feels wrong to boost something inaccessible to so many.
Anyway - please add alt text, everyone.
@blainecross
Somewhere around here (it was last week some time) a user suggested adding explanatory text either in our own posts, or in a copy-paste-the-image style so that we gain control over the display of the image.
THis is one of those places where quote tweets could be helpful, fwiw
@SisterArtemis
I never added #AltText until I opened a #Mastodon account. Now I add alt-text to almost every image everywhere 
@SisterArtemis You can follow @PleaseCaption to remind you when you forget
@SisterArtemis I won’t boost posts containing images without alt text.
@SisterArtemis And if you forget, as I have, it's not that hard to go back, edit, delete photo, re-post photo with the mouse-over/alt-text description.
@ArrowbearMoore
I look forward to that - at the moment, our server is still using an old version of the software, and ver. 3 doesn't have that feature (our upgrade glitched when we tried it a few weeks ago, so we're still behind the times).
But in the meantime, I haven't posted too many images, and haven't forgotten to do it so far.
@SisterArtemis Alt text really helps engage those that have vision challenges. #blind #VisuallyImpaired #ADA (USA)