this post was submitted on 22 May 2024
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The use case they mention (generating alt text for images in PDFs) is something that couldn't work otherwise and, even if it isn't perfect, can be a big help to people with visual impairments, while at the same time doesn't get in the way of the users that don't need it.
If they keep focusing on these kinds of features instead of going fully Clippy like Google and Microsoft are doing, I think it's fine.
honestly, you’re right. I still worry that it could encourage an attitude of abled people not caring about alt text, because "oh well AI’s gonna do it anyway, who cares!", but, really, abled people already don’t care about alt text, so…
In the specific case of PDF most users wouldn't even know where to add an alt text. Depending on how you generate the PDF it might even be impossible. So I think Mozilla has the same concern as you, and that's why they aren't adding this to images in HTML (yet).