The internet has become 3 massive multi-user blogs, each largely consisting of screenshots taken of the other two. This kind of blows, and not just for the usual reasons that may spring to mind.
Images are a terrible medium for online communication! Not everyone online uses a monitor. Any messages contained in a picture is straight up unacceptable without alt-text. It also makes it harder to find and fact check sources, or to spread a thought or idea further than yet another image upload. Copy/pasting text is just plain easier than downloading and uploading.
If you're going through the trouble of creating an image post, take an extra minuite to copy/past (or even transcribe) the source text into the alt-text submission. It's not much, but it goes a ways to improving how we use this blasted network!
https://uxdesign.cc/how-to-write-an-image-description-2f30d3bf5546
I usually try to do this now due to accessibility concerns. As @Edie@hexbear.net said, when embedding an image in a comment, the alt text goes inside the
[].When I was testing it out, it seemed like it was actually the "title" that was getting applied as alt text.
E: ok, I switched to a computer to double-check the source. The title is actually the title and not the alt text, but that’s all I can easily see on mobile. The alt text is different, but even on the computer only the title is actually easy for me to see without looking at the page source.
You're right that it appears to reverse title and alt-text from the commonmark spec. That might be a bug or unintended deviation.
I know @Edie@hexbear.net has tested post images through a screen reader, but I'm not sure if she has tested comment images. She might know more.
Edit: actually, it's not reversed in the source. It's just that browsers seem to like to show the title text rather than the alt text.
I took a look from a computer at the source. The fields are mapped properly, but:
And regardless of whether I’m looking from a computer or mobile, the alt text is hard or impossible to see, while the title text is potentially visible.
Yes, that is how it works. Title has problems.
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Except I’m having the exact opposite experience
In some contexts it seems that orca will say both. First the alt, then it adds "image", then the title.
Edit: But in others not, it will say just the alt.
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I've been doing alt-text wrong the whole time?! :kiryu-slam:
Emoji codes don’t translate as well when federated though:
Of course they don't work federated...
Edit: No, you seem to be doing it correctly.
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I should post/comment entirely with images as practice and as a bit.
It’s absolutely wild to see emoji codes instead of images. I always use the emoji picker to find stuff instead of just typing something out. The inline picker is loading faster though, so maybe I should use that more, but unless I fully type out an emoji it still gets replaced with an image code.
I usually use the emoji code because it's easier for me to read while I'm ~~shitposting~~ composing the comment with inline emojis. Compare the source of this comment to this comment to see why.
Oh yeah, it was a ton easier to read than some UUID picture link, I was going to switch up how I use emojis until I checked how it federates
What/how did you test?
In my post above, I put an image with:
On a computer, the only browser I tested was Firefox. The title text displayed on mouse hover. Both title and alt text were visible in the HTML page source.
On mobile, I was only testing with Safari. The title text displays on long press. The post source displays when I click the post source button.
Alt text aren't supposed to be rendered.
Whether that's a good thing? I don't really think so, sure makes it a lot harder to get the average person to care about them.
Maybe a tooltip should be added, or the alt text should be copied to the title as well when there is no title text.
Copying the alt to the title may result in the same text being presented twice.
If you show it as a tooltip, people will use it as a tooltip.
I guess that's why it's hidden so we'll. The average webdev only learning about alt texts through search engine optimization might be preferable outcome over them approaching it as a visual design feature.