Leebra dogs
login register

Rule 9: providing alt text for image posts

17 days ago by setVeryLoud(true); to c/dogs

save

share

report

Hello!

I've added a new rule to the side bar:

  1. When posting an image containing text, provide alt text in the post body. This helps users with limited vision participate in our community. Providing alt text on all image posts is strongly encouraged.

This rule was added as a response to an increase in image posts where the main content is the text in the image with no provided alt text.

A lot of people with limited vision rely on service dogs to function, and it would be really unfortunate to exclude them from this community. This also lets users more easily copy-paste and translate post content.

Alt text is generally a rough description of the content alongside a caption of the text on the image.

EDIT: After further discussion, I believe it is important to encourage alt text across the fediverse even on non-text image posts. I strongly encourage submitters to put a short alt text in the post body when posting images of their pets, and I encourage commenters to generate alt text for posts where the submitter may have forgotten to put one in the body.

Here's a good example of alt text:

Alt: My brown and white Border Collie, sitting on my computer chair looking outside through the window.

https://lemmy.ca/post/71504213

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.

Lumidaub 5 points 17 days ago

This is obviously not needed for pictures of your pets or where the content is otherwise purely visual in nature.

Sorry, why is this obvious? What makes pictures of pets different from other pictures? And what does "purely visual" mean?

save

path: 0 26039385, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 18
psycotica0 6 points 17 days ago

I think they mean if the alt text is just "a picture of a dog" then that won't really help a person with visual impairments. But if it's a meme or something and contains text, then the text can be transcribed into the alt-text so a person can still read it.

save

path: 0 26039385 26039895, hotness: undefined, score: 6, children: 7
Lumidaub 3 points 17 days ago

What do you mean that won't help? "A picture of a dog" tells a person with visual impairments what the picture is. That's the whole point. If you don't put anything, they'll just know that there's a picture but not if it's important or interesting or worth their time to ask.

save

path: 0 26039385 26039895 26039957, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 6
Hupf 3 points 16 days ago

What might a picture with no further context in a community called "dogs" be about?

save

path: 0 26039385 26039895 26039957 26051962, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 5
Lumidaub 4 points 16 days ago

Who knows? The person who can't see it certainly doesn't.

save

path: 0 26039385 26039895 26039957 26051962 26052823, hotness: undefined, score: 4, children: 4
isVeryLoud 2 points 17 days ago

I'm 100% open to discussion on that one, but it's because I consider pictures of pets to be "decorative" (as per WCAG) as a no-vision user would get no useful benefit from knowing that there is a picture of a dog as the enjoyment is mostly visual, while a low-vision user would still have a blurry, distorted or partially obstructed view of the picture to kinda figure out what's going on.

I also didn't want to make the rule too intense as my target is really just text in posts, and it's uncommon for Lemmy communities to request users to add alt text, so people may not know how much or how little description to add to their alt text anyway.

I guess it's not so obvious after all 😅

save

path: 0 26039385 26040185, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 9
Lumidaub 4 points 17 days ago

The "decorative" category is for websites where you can have visual design elements accompanying text, with the text being the important bit. If you're making an entire post about a picture, it's not decorative. You're showing the picture to other people, the content of the picture is the point of your post.

save

path: 0 26039385 26040185 26040271, hotness: undefined, score: 4, children: 8
isVeryLoud 3 points 17 days ago

You're right, I think I'm used to work making us put full photographs in our apps that actually add nothing of value other than "pretty splash page" so I got used to it haha

I'll mull it over. I don't want to burden and scare users too much either with how small Lemmy's user base already is, though accessibility is important to me. My main issue is with text-in-image posts, like Twitter screenshots and those Hallmark style graphics.

save

path: 0 26039385 26040185 26040271 26040865, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 7
alianne 2 points 16 days ago

I agree with your desire for alt text as well as your concern about burdening people - most people don't even know it exists, let alone how to write it.

Maybe instead of a rule, you could make it a suggestion (for all posts, not just images with text)? That would still encourage the behavior without mandating it. If someone else provides alt text in a comment, you could potentially pin that as well to make sure it's easily findable.

save

path: 0 26039385 26040185 26040271 26040865 26046832, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 6
dogs
dogs

@lemmy.world

login for more options
7566
1788
2963

A community about dogs.

Breeds, tips and tricks about training and behaviour, news affecting dog owners, canine photography, dog-related art and any questions related to dog ownership.

Rules

  1. Posts must be related to dogs or dog ownership and must not be void of content.
  2. This is a neutral space. No bigotry or personal attacks. Criticism should be polite and constructive.
  3. No automated content. This includes AI generated imagery, post body, articles, comments or automated accounts.
  4. No advertising or self-promotion.
  5. Illegal or unethical practices are frowned upon, and any comments or posts suggesting them will be removed. This includes, but is not limited to, backyard breeding, ear and tail cropping, fake service animals, negative reinforcement, alpha/pack/dominance theory, and eugenics.
  6. No judging or attacking community members who care for dogs with cropped ears, docked tails, or those from puppy mills or questionable sources. While we discourage these practices (per Rule 5), all dogs deserve loving homes and compassionate care regardless of their background or physical alterations.
  7. No breed discrimination, all breeds welcome. Our stance matches the ASPCA's official stance and is not up for debate.
  8. Citing your sources when making a claim is encouraged. Misinformation will be removed.
  9. When posting an image containing text, provide alt text in the post body. This helps users with limited vision participate in our community. Providing alt text on all image posts is strongly encouraged.

go to feed...