If your alt text could be used as an image caption in a newspaper or magazine it's not good alt text. Image captions are supplementary to those images. Alt text is meant to provide the same information as the image does, but in text. - ThreadSky

ebthen.bsky.social • 1 day ago

If your alt text could be used as an image caption in a newspaper or magazine it's not good alt text.

Image captions are supplementary to those images.

Alt text is meant to provide the same information as the image does, but in text.

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girlbeans.bsky.social•11 hours ago

what is an example of a newspaper/magazine image caption? I'm not familiar with how they caption things. When I imagine a magazine caption, I think of things like "Jane Doe stands next to John Smith on a podium overlooking a crowd of protesters" which feels like exactly what the image is conveying.

ebthen.bsky.social•11 hours ago

I think the link in the follow-up post gives some good examples of the difference in approach.

This is from a different part of the same page: https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/images.html#ancillary-images

girlbeans.bsky.social•10 hours ago

I guess i'm just trying to figure out if my alt text meets the desired standard. I try to be as descriptive as possible without getting too long-winded.

ebthen.bsky.social•10 hours ago

I really do recommend looking at those resources if you haven't.

But I also have a collection of threads that get at the basics of alt text for social media in an accessible way.

girlbeans.bsky.social•10 hours ago

After perusing it a bit, I think i'm probably meeting standards for a photo gallery style account. Sometimes I'm feeling a bit wordier and my descriptions will be more detailed, sometimes I feel bad because i'm just really tired or not feeling great and my alt text becomes dry and less eloquent.

girlbeans.bsky.social•10 hours ago

I also often feel like I just don't *know* the words to describe something. I'm afraid of looking dumb because I don't know how to put something fairly simple into words, like the shape of something or describing a pattern. doing my best though!

ebthen.bsky.social•10 hours ago

This is my philosophy about alt text:

onbradstreetfarm.bsky.social•10 hours ago

I did look at these and I could not discern what we were meant to do. Are we supposed to be putting html in our alt text? I had difficulty understanding the difference between the two examples because of the html.

ebthen.bsky.social•10 hours ago

So—alt is an HTML attribute. It is (or should be, if the devs are doing it correctly) the underlying structure for how the alt you write on social media gets included on the site.

Most best practice for alt text is written with the assumption that it is being done for traditional websites.

onbradstreetfarm.bsky.social•10 hours ago

I think I understand that. Maybe I’m being too literal, idk. I try to be descriptive. I’m not sure if this example is adequate? https://bsky.app/profile/onbradstreetfarm.bsky.social/post/3lixc2fmue22d

ebthen.bsky.social•9 hours ago

I think yeah, especially because the point of your image, based on the text, is about color. I think you could make it clear that Foggy is the cat's name and that would be a small improvement, but this works.

ebthen.bsky.social•10 hours ago

If you're doing alt text for an image on social media, it's pretty much the same as writing in between the "" that come after alt= in HTML code.

onbradstreetfarm.bsky.social•10 hours ago

Okay, thanks, I think I was getting to that understanding. It was seeing the highlighted text on that site with all the code that was throwing me. (AuDHD/dyscalculia/synesthete 😅)

ebthen.bsky.social•11 hours ago

The only thing I would say is that, while on traditional websites it is acceptable to sometimes leave alt text blank, the same is not true of social media.

tychobravo.bsky.social•1 day ago

Here are the two sources I share most often - professionally and on Bluesky:

https://www.section508.gov/create/alternative-text

tychobravo.bsky.social•1 day ago

and for artists

https://www.cooperhewitt.org/cooper-hewitt-guidelines-for-image-description/

ebthen.bsky.social•1 day ago

I have created some threads that I find work better for folks on social media.

ebthen.bsky.social•1 day ago

I have other resources I also like and link to. But on this thread I chose to link to the WHATWG HTML standard because it specifically addresses what I was talking about.

oldbaby.bsky.social•16 hours ago

you can always do more

ebthen.bsky.social•13 hours ago

oldbaby.bsky.social•13 hours ago

ok well you are welcome to scroll my media tab and tell me if you approve or not. i'll take your feedback into consideration.
on the other hand, i don't want to read a rule book on how to describe images. communication is a two way street.

ebthen.bsky.social•13 hours ago

You don't want to read some very helpful guidance on how to best use a decades-old tool that exists for a specific reason to slightly improve other people's lives.

I don't get it, but I'm done here.

oldbaby.bsky.social•13 hours ago

that's fine. nice to meet you! see you around!

ebthen.bsky.social•1 day ago

This is not an arbitrary me thing. It's literally in the WHATWG HTML standard.

ebthen.bsky.social•23 hours ago

In case folks have missed it, my pinned post is a thread collecting my most helpful tips and information about how and why to do alt text—especially on social media.

I've developed these over several years based on decades of best practice and input from folks who regularly rely on alt text.

ebthen.bsky.social•23 hours ago

But mainly I also spend a lot of time paying attention to how folks do alt text on social media, where they run into trouble and what information and strategies can help them to do it better.

goldienewt.bsky.social•23 hours ago

Do you have opinions on describing vs naming people? I end up changing the default text on a lot of gifs because the default language is of "a man wearing glasses" which to me is not the same as Mike Meyers playing Austin Powers.

ebthen.bsky.social•23 hours ago

Use the names, especially in memes.

goldienewt.bsky.social•23 hours ago

isomeme.bsky.social•23 hours ago

My usual advice is to write alt text as if you're trying to verbally describe the key parts of the image to a blind person. This works well because quite frequently that is precisely what you are doing. 1/3

isomeme.bsky.social•23 hours ago

So, for example, not "The conference committee discussing 2026 plans", but instead "A large, crowded conference room with blue walls and light grey carpet. A woman is standing at a lectern in front. On the wall behind her is a large screen reading '2026 conference goals'." 2/3

isomeme.bsky.social•23 hours ago

Mentioning colors of notable objects is very useful to low-vision users like me. Sometimes knowing e.g. that if I see a large area of blue that's probably a wall is all I need for the whole image to suddenly snap into intelligibility. 3/3

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