You must be new around here huh? No offense intended, but it's way more than just a one-off memo. It's probably easier for me to explain than to dig around for a link.

A large part of why Lemmy has grown so much lately is because of Reddit API and pricing changes, which basically shut down all the 3rd party Reddit apps. The official Reddit app doesn't work with screen reading software, which basically destroyed the r/blind subreddit.

Blind people have a right to enjoy social media and the internet as well. Lemmy does support screen reading software, but it takes a little effort on our part to provide text for screen readers to actually read aloud.

There's nothing mandatory about the image description thing (unless perhaps you're in a community specifically for blind people), it's just a courtesy.

And some folks that smoke reefer do so because of vision problems, sooo...