(NOTE: This guide was made with the help of accessibility advocate Robert Kingett, who has also helped with accessibility on many Fediverse volunteer projects such as BookWyrm, GoToSocial and others. You can donate to Kingett via his website ⧉.)
Blind and partially-sighted people on Mastodon and the Fediverse often use special audio apps called “screen readers” that read text out loud, so they can tell what is on the screen.
Blind and deafblind people often use braille displays which convert computer text into refreshable braille ⧉.
Deaf people don’t need screen readers or braille, but they do need text descriptions of any audio content being posted, not just audio files but also videos containing audio.
It is really important to consider accessibility when writing your posts, so that blind, deaf and deafblind people can fully access their content. There are lots of really simple things you can do that make a big difference!
How to add text descriptions (“alt texts”) to image and video and audio posts
- Create a new post
- Attach an image or video or audio
- When the image or video or audio appears in the post editing box, there will be a link somewhere in the image or video itself that says “Alt” or “Description” or “Describe the photo” or something similar, often in a corner. Click on this link.
- Write a text description of the image or video or audio. It doesn’t have to describe every detail, you just have to write what you want people to notice. If you’re posting videos containing sound remember to describe both the video and audio.
- When you’ve finished writing the description, on some interfaces or apps you may need to click “Apply” or “Done” so you can go back to writing your post. However, some apps let you just click on your post to go back to writing it. Whatever your app or interface uses, do that 🙂
- Finish writing your post and publish it
I know this sounds long-winded but you get used to it very quickly. It becomes second nature, and it makes your posts reach a much larger audience!
Why do posts with media descriptions get a much larger audience?
Accessibility is really important on Mastodon and the rest of the Fediverse. A lot of people will not share media posts without descriptions.
If you post media without descriptions, you are making it much harder for people to discover or share your post.
How detailed do alt text descriptions have to be?
This is a matter of context, but the rule of thumb is to just write what is important to notice in an image, video or audio. It doesn’t have to be everything, it just has to be what is relevant.
If you were talking to someone on the phone or writing to someone in a letter, and you had to describe your media post to them in words, what level of detail would you use?
There’s a media post without a description, but it says #Alt4Me in the post. What does this mean?
If you’re abled and you see the hashtag #Alt4Me underneath a media post, it means a disabled person is asking someone to write a description of the media because they are unable to. Reply to the post with the tag #Alt4You and a description.
Also, if you’re an abled person and you see a remarkable piece of media that doesn’t have a description and no one has requested one yet, you can be pro-active and reply with a description using the tag #Alt4You.
What is the image caption group?
As well as the #Alt4Me hashtag, people who need help with creating their media description can mention the Fediverse group @imagecaptionspls@a.gup.pe and abled people who want to help create media descriptions can follow the group.
If someone mention this account in their post, it will be seen by all of the groups followers who can then take action in posting a description in a reply.
What if I’m just posting text? Do I still need to consider accessibility issues?
Yes! Even if you’re just writing a text-only post without any media content, you still need to do a number of things to make your text accessible to blind people using screen readers:
- When posting hashtags, use CamelCase (where each word begins with a capital letter), for example #DogsOfMastodon instead of #dogsofmastodon. The capital letters allow screen reader apps to separate the words correctly and read the hashtag out loud properly. This also makes the tag easier for sighted people to read!
- Don’t do that “sarcastic text” thing where you make fun of someone by having random letters as capitals. Random capital letters within words prevent a screen reader from working properly, it reads such words as disjointed gibberish.
- Don’t use long strings of emoji, as these sound really annoying when read out loud by screen readers. It’s okay to use emoji, it’s just the huge groups of emoji all bunched together that cause problems. Try not to exceed one or two emoji per group if possible.
- Don’t use deliberately obscure characters for your username, these can sound like gibberish when a screen reader reads them out (click here for an example ⧉). Standard characters work with screen readers, obscure characters usually don’t.
How do I remember to add descriptions to my media posts?
There is an automatic reminder service called PleaseCaption which will remind you by DM if you forget to add an alt text description.
What if I forget to add a description?
You can edit your posts to add descriptions afterwards.
Should I be criticising people who haven’t added alt texts?
It’s important to add descriptions to media so that they’re accessible, but it’s also important not to criticise those who are unable to do so due to their own disability. If someone has written #Alt4Me alongside the media, that means they cannot add descriptions themselves. Don’t criticise them or comment on the lack of description, just help them out by replying with an #Alt4You post which includes your own description of the media item.
If there’s no #Alt4Me tag on the undescribed media, it’s still worth being polite as no one wants bad feelings generated around the topic of descriptions. You might want to just reply with a description and #Alt4You tag, and if they’re abled they will hopefully get the message that descriptions are preferred.
How do I fit the media descriptions into my post without breaking the character limit?
As long as you’re adding the description in the image’s own Alt Text section, it will not count towards your main post’s character limit. There is a large limit for descriptions (1500 characters on Mastodon), so you shouldn’t run out of room.
Also important to remember: accessibility helps everyone!
Accessibility isn’t just about helping the disabled, it makes life easier for everyone.
For example, media descriptions are very, very often viewed by abled people to get a better idea of what the poster is trying to convey. Media descriptions tell people quickly and precisely what the point of the media is. Some posters even include extra details in media descriptions because they have such a high character limit.
Another common example is writing hashtags in CamelCase, as this makes it much easier for everyone to tell which words are in the tag. Sometimes it can be impossible to tell without CamelCase: #superbowl could be #SuperBowl or #SuperbOwl
When we normalise accessibility on the Fediverse, it makes it easier for everyone to use the Fediverse. (A reader has pointed out, this is a well-known phenomenon in the real world called the “curb cut effect” ⧉).
Excuse me, I am a programmer and I’d like to point out that what you call CamelCase is actually PascalCase
There is more info about this terminology issue in the hashtags guide.