Text descriptions for images, videos and audio are expected on the Fediverse, it’s really important to be considerate of blind, deaf and deafblind people who use adaptive technology to browse the internet. Adding text descriptions to your media attachments makes it much easier for the adaptive tech to work.

By the time you’ve been adding descriptions for a while it becomes second nature, but if you’re not used to adding text descriptions it can be easy to forget to add them. However, help is available!

There’s a setting built into Mastodon that can remind you to add alt text when posting media:

1. Log into your server’s website or web app
2. Click ⚙️ Preferences (on a phone click ☰ in bottom right corner, then ⚙️ Preferences)
3. Scroll down to Advanced Settings section
4. Tick box marked Warn me before posting media without alt text
5. Click Save Changes

There are similar settings on the mobile apps, usually found in their ⚙️ Settings sections. The exact interface will vary depending on which app you’re using.

What if I’m not using Mastodon, or if my app doesn’t support reminders? Is there any other way to be reminded about using alt texts?

There is a bot called PleaseCaption which will automatically send you a DM if you’ve forgotten to include an alt text on an image, video or audio post:

1. Follow the PleaseCaption bot at @PleaseCaptionBot@hachyderm.io
2. PleaseCaption will automatically follow you back (if you have follow requests switched on confirm the bot’s request to activate the reminders)
3. If you post an image, video or audio without a description, PleaseCaption will send you a DM about it as a reminder. You can then edit the post to add the description in if you like.

What’s the point of a reminder after I’ve posted? How do I add the description after it’s published?

Mastodon and many other Fedi platforms support post editing, so you can add a description into your post after you’ve published it.

How do I stop the reminders from PleaseCaption?

To stop the reminders:

1. Unfollow PleaseCaption
2. Block and then unblock PleaseCaption, this will remove if as a follower but you will still be able to follow it again in future

How do I delete the reminder DMs from PleaseCaption?

Just favourite a reminder and PleaseCaption will automatically delete it.

Does PleaseCaption check if posts I boost have descriptions?

No, not any more. It used to, but ran into technical difficulties with this feature so the developers have switched boost-checking off for the moment.

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