This isnât a prompt, but do you know why some people put text descriptions of the pictures underneath them? Is it just for when they donât load properly?
It can be used for that, yes, but itâs mainly used for blind or low vision people who canât see the pictures, but have screen-readers that can read the text to them.
So if thereâs a post thatâs conveyed almost entirely through reaction images, with just a few lines of text here and there, they wonât understand whatâs happening, because they canât see the pictures, all they know is what the text says.
But if you include a description of the images, their screen reader can include that information, so that theyâre just as in the loop as everyone else.
Itâs a good habit to get into, especially if youâre good at typing on mobile. It helps not only your followers, but anyone else who might see the post.
It seems to be a pretty common misconception that blind people donât use the internet or computers, and itâs definitely not true.
The Main thing is to include âIDâ or âImage Descriptionâ at the front, and âEnd IDâ or âEnd Image Descriptionâ or something similar at the end, so that there is a clear distinctions between an image being described, and normal text. Itâs also helpful to include brackets like these to âcontainâ the image description [ ]
Think of it like quotation marks. Books would be a lot harder to understand if there werenât any quotation marks to show you what was being said and what was being narrated.
Itâs also important to include paragraph breaks and punctuation as necessary, because, like you said, it might be used in case the images arenât loading, so it should be easy to read for people with vision as well. Autistic people and people with ADHD in particular have trouble reading large paragraphs, so treat it like you would a story, and split it up as needed.
It is very important NOT to put your image description under a cut or a read more, because this means that the people trying to access the post now have to click through to your blog, AND it means that if you ever change your URL or delete your blog, anything under the cut disappears, and they still wonât be able to understand the post. And if that happens, people might keep relogging your version thinking theyâre helping, not realizing that itâs empty.
Image descriptions can get long, and in that case, simply tag them as âl/ong postâ, like you would with any other post. But donât put them behind a read-more. The idea here is to make them easy to access, and having to click away from the dashboard multiple times with the risk that there is nothing to find is the opposite of helpful.
Some examples, ranging in difficulty:
[ID: A cut out photograph of a monarch butterfly, with its wings open against a white background. End ID]
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[Image Description:Â A black and white, motion-blurred drawing of a werewolf. Her mouth is open wide, and her eye is glowing red, and she is surrounded by the capital letter A, indicating that she is screaming loudly. End Image Description.]
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[ID: A half-completed drawing of a woman with short blonde hair and pale skin running partially backwards, as someone off-screen pulls her by the hand, leaning in the direction she is moving to indicate that she is moving quickly, and the person pulling her is in a hurry.
She is wearing a blue and white, long-sleeved striped shirt, and long khaki pants. She is smiling widely, one hand raised in a happy wave that is directed at four people behind her, where her gaze is directed. Musical notes float above her head, indicating that she is singing.
The people she is waving to, and the railing they are leaning on are done only in black and white, they are not wearing clothes, and they are identical to one another. Their eyes are closed, they are smiling, and they donât have hair. They each have one hand raised to wave back, and more musical notes are above their heads, indicating they are also singing. They all appear to be very happy.
The background is blank white. End ID.]
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If you canât add image descriptions to posts you reblog or create, (and if youâre reblogging, you can try scrolling through the notes to see if anyone else has added a description, and reblog that!), itâs helpful to tag the post as âundescribed ima/gesâ (minus the /) or âno I/Dâ (minus the /), so that the posts can be filtered by people who wonât be able to access them.
Iâm trying to add image descriptions to the things I make or reblog, but my problem is that I am absolutely terrible at typing on my phone (if you follow me at @rjalkerâ, you are probably very aware of this) so I have to wait until I can use my laptop to add them in. So if Iâm reblogging a post that has pictures, but no image description, I tag it as âundescri/bed imagesâ.
As a tip if youâre using a laptop, if you have a Notepad app or other quick writing program, you can open that, minimize the window, and type your image description in there while looking at the picture on Tumblr, instead of having to scroll up and down constantly!
But yeah! Itâs pretty easy once you get into the habit, and itâll make your blog more accessible to people who are blind or have low vision, or even just, like you said, a bad internet connection! I absolutely encourage it!Â
It might seem daunting at first, but once you get used to it, youâll be helping a lot of people, and youâll get better at writing, too!Â
If anyone has any more information or tips, please feel free to add on, because Iâm still learning!
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