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1. Gregory J. Rosmaita (oedipusnj@kolektiva.social)'s status on Saturday, 19-Nov-2022 23:02:48 UTC Gregory J. Rosmaita

   in reply to

   As long as the topic of image description has your attention, I'd like to try & reproduce on Mastodon something I & several other volunteers organized on Twitter. It’s 2 hashtags to assist with image description.

   The first is #ALT4me — blind & visually impaired individuals can reply to an image that lacks ALT text with this tag, so that sighted volunteers can then reply with a description. The strength of crowdsourcing this is that each person adds unique details from their own perspective, that when combined, form a detailed & meaningful conception of the image. It also allows one person to give a quick triage description, & then others can fill in details as they see fit.

   The 2nd is #ALT4you — if you come across an image that is particularly striking, or one that you believe will quickly become iconic & part of a shared visual imagery/memory, please describe that image & tag it with this tag. This is particularly important during unfolding news stories that quickly break & change, leaving behind indelible visual impressions, that then shape most peoples memory & consciousness of the event. Obviously, for the blind/VI, without a description, search images, no matter how important, remain perceptual and informational black holes.

   Thank you all again for the outstanding image description I have encountered so consistently in my limited experience on Mastodon.

   • Gregory J. Rosmaita (oedipusnj@kolektiva.social)'s status on Saturday, 19-Nov-2022 23:02:49 UTC Gregory J. Rosmaita

     As a blind individual, I have to say that #Caturday on #Mastodon is far far more enjoyable then at #Twitter, where the vast majority of cat photos are not described.

     It is also been fascinating for me to hear descriptions written by those who sent the image, immediately followed by Apple image recognition’s attempts to describe the same image. Only rarely does that add anything to the ALT, & often directly contradicts it.
     
     There is no auto magical solution to image description. It is something best done by a human, for only that human can explain the “why” of the image: the reason that image was chosen to speak so eloquently without words for those who can see it. ALT allows you to provide those words.

     Fay Maritela Marinera repeated this.