this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2023
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Alt-text on media: Why not compulsory on some instances? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 2 years ago by comfy@lemmy.ml to c/fediverse@lemmy.ml
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I don't have many fedi accounts, but looking at public Mastodon feeds it is very common to see people requesting others to add alt-text to their media and getting a lot of boosts/etc.

Is there any reason (beyond a very mild convenience) for some Mastodon instances not to require alt-text on media? It seems like something a lot of admins would want to do, given their general audience, and naively I'd say it's very easy to implement.

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[–] ttmrichter@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Because it's sometimes a ludicrous demand?

Common pattern I see in Mastodon's ... more strident, shall we call them? ... advocates:

Poster: I just took a picture of a . Note the red and yellow flash of plumage, in contrast to the more usual green and red. I caught this little darling hopping along the charcoal grey slate walkway I've got running through my garden, right next to the you can see at the right side of the frame.

Strident Twit: WHY YOU NO PUT ALT TEXT!?

Or, worse:

Strident Twit Bot: WHY YOU NO PUT ALT TEXT FOR OUR BLIND USERS!?

So what, precisely (providing details), would you put into alt text that's not already in the post? Would you just copy and paste the alt text? When I ask the strident twits this, I generally get vague homilies and blocks.

[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

In that (rare) situation, you can just say 'picture of the bird' to avoid being redundant!

When I ask the strident twits this, I generally get vague homilies and blocks.

Unfortunately, I believe you. Some people take counterpoints very badly, it's notorious with twitter (and therefore ex-twitter) users.

My response is that demand, in that redundant situation, is insulting to people with visually-imparement and can be disregarded.

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