Post #4113564

2026-07-26 13:49 UTC

A great thing to do for alt text is to simply describe what’s in the image. It doesn’t have to be Pulitzer Prize winning prose. Something as simple as “a cute black kitten sitting in a tiny bandage box,” or “a middle-aged man with graying brown hair looks directly into the camera as someone pours beer over his head.” What isn’t as helpful is when one simply repeats the text of the toot to which the image is attached (unless the toot itself is descriptive text) or oversimplified descriptions like “a cat” or “a man and beer.” Or when someone posts a comic in which two cute foxes have dialog about sadness and hope, but then for alt text writes something like “a comic about a fox being sad” without describing the foxes and their actions or repeating the dialogue. Descriptive alt text is awesome because it lets everyone in on the joke or the beauty or the silliness or the cuteness. Access is sexy, friends.

Replies (4)

@Anomnomnomaly@beige.party 2026-07-26 13:50

@adhdeanasl@beige.party Me posting pics of the DIY I do... alt text... congratulations, you are listening to paint dry (for those with text to speech readers)

Open ##4116227
@SecondUniverse@autistics.life 2026-07-26 14:14

@adhdeanasl@beige.party I am sighted but Alt text is often helpful to me. Some pictures just don't make sense until I read the Alt text. And German comics make sense when I translate the Alt text.

Open ##4124238
@CaramelizedShallots@ohai.social 2026-07-26 14:09

@adhdeanasl@beige.party Thanks, Dean. I also would like to remind folks about the #Alt4Me hashtag when you need help writing alt text. I used it once for trying to describe a technical graph and got 2 incredibly useful descriptions.

Open ##4158117
@adhdeanasl@beige.party 2026-08-03 12:15

Quick follow up on this alt text post, because I just found a great example of adding alt text to a comic. Please note: it doesn’t say “a comic about a tick.” https://mastodon.social/@warandpeas/116987227016133021

Open ##4375403