On social media, the low vision experience is highly erratic

This article is two years old but still relevant to social media in 2023.

One of the biggest barriers is the assumption that blind people just won’t be interested in visual media. “Just because they’re visual doesn’t mean that they’re immediately not attractive to people who are blind or low vision,” says McCann. “I think that’s one big misconception: ‘Oh, well, they don’t care about pictures.’ But we do.” When culture is molded on social networks, it sucks to lose out on a shared social language because you can’t see the images everyone is talking about.

Christy Smith Berman, a low vision editor at Can I Play That, responded to a TT Games tweet that announced the delay of Star Wars Lego with text on an image. When she replied with a request for alt text, Smith Berman was met with responses from people expressing disbelief that blind people would even be on Twitter to begin with, let alone care about video games.

  • Retronautickz@beehaw.orgEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    i feel like it’s still difficult to think of what to put for things like art i’ve done, but i’m gonna do my best to do give it a good effort next time

    There are resources that can teach you how to describe images/create alternative text. What I wound recommend is:

    • Describe only what it’s essential to convey the image. You don’t need to describe the several shades of green in the grass or the several shades of brown in a character’s hair.
    • Describe the important details/things as complete as you can
    • Give context if required. “A man sitting under a tree” isn’t the same as “A man sitting under a tree as part of a protest against deforestation”
    • Always determine the type of image/art