#Too any screenreader-users

[taboo-delusion]

Lë`m-mœù(L)ff~`!

[ladytabletop]

Do you happen to have any resources regarding accessibility in ttrpg design? About design, colours, phrasing of text or anything else that could be helpful!

I spent wayyyyy too long compiling all this - but it's important, and I appreciate you asking!!

Accessibility is a subject near and dear to my heart, and I will say up front that I'm not sure universal (aka accessible to everyone) design is possible, because people's needs can vary even within the same subset of similar disabilities (such as limited vision or blindness). BUT that doesn't mean we don't try to design for and make our games available to as many people as possible. Mismatch by Kat Holmes is a great read on design for accessibility in general, as is Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez. You might also check out literally anything Alice Wong has ever done.

To start, I recommend this article on the Lenses of Accessibility.

(for reference, this article is about web/graphic design, so I'm going to try and distill the most salient points for game design)

We are going to primarily focus on a few of these lenses:

Color

Font

Images & Icons

Layout

Readability

Structure

Keyboard

More details under the cut.

Color

Why does color matter? Well, for starters, there's a lot of colorblind people out there. Contrast affects readability. Autistic people and people who suffer from occular migraines might be affected by particular vivid colors. There's lots of reasons to consider color and the work it is doing in your piece, but in general you can provide a black and white, high contrast version of your game to help users.

There are tools out there to figure out if your contrast meets certain readability standards, such as this one.

Font

Dyslexia and other visual processing issues can make font choice really important. Plus, some fonts really affect readability. Additionally, line height, justification, and size of text can affect readability.

Best practice would be to provide a plain-text version of your game (and beware of "dyslexia-friendly" fonts which may or may not actually help - sticking to a basic readability font like Arial, Tahoma, or Verdana, is safest). I like this style guide for reference.

Images & Icons

For visually-impaired people, it's important to use alt-text, descriptions, and/or captions to help screenreaders properly translate images. Tons and tons of details that could go into this, but there are better people than me to describe it.

Layout

We've talked about this a bit, but there's tons of resources for this. There was recently a great writeup about Yazeba's Bed and Breakfast in terms of layout that I highly recommend.

Readability

More of the thing we've already talked about - it really is a combination of all the other lenses that comes down to readability. Audio versions of your game are always a good way to avoid the restrictions of screen readers, but can be expensive to produce.

Structure

This is tables. Tables are a nightmare for screenreaders, but including them as images can also be a problem. The short solution is "don't use tables" but that's not necessarily great for seeing people. The section in this blog is really great when talking about options for structure.

Keyboard

Debated on whether to include this, but given how many games are being read as purely digital files, I think it's important to have workable interactive elements that can be navigated through without a mouse. Some of that is going to come down to the programs being used to open your files. But if there are things you can do on your end (such as labeling form fillable fields on an interactive character sheet), they're worth doing!

Please understand that this isn't an exhaustive list. There's tons of resources out there and technology and standards are constantly changing.

It's also is important to note that even doing one of these things is helpful. You might look at this list and go "wow that's too hard" but I promise you, it's worth it. My games do not all have accessible versions! That's something I'm trying to rectify. The biggest part of that for me is thinking about accessibility from the start instead of at the end! But we can start today, and that's better than not starting.

The most important thing to remember are that disabled people are NOT a monolith - needs will differ from person to person. Accessible design makes gaming better for everyone!

Final Resources:

Accessibility in InDesign

Accessible-RPG

A11Y

Accessible Design for Teams

[tnypawzz]

Accessibility & why it's important (with examples)

First off, I want to say this isn't targeting anyone in particular. I just wanted to make an educational post about how to keep your account accessible while keeping it cute. If I need to add/take away something, please tell me I don't want to spread misinformation.

Accessibility is defined as "the quality of being able to be entered or used by everyone, including people who have a disability" (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/accessibility)

This can be seen as adding a wheelchair ramp outside buildings, including braille on buildings/signs, or making a website easy to read.

"The purpose of making things accessible for everyone is to create a more inclusive environment that is accessible to everyone." It also impacts everyone by" ensuring everyone has access to the same resources, information & opportunities." Some countries have laws to make "public places, digital platforms, & other environments accessible to people with disabilities."(https://www.handtalk.me/en/blog/accessibility/#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20most%20important,voice%2Dcontrolled%20options%20for%20devices.).

Keeping your account accessible is important so everyone can correctly read & see how your account looks. For example, users who use a screen reader won't be able to read the fonts you use in your posts. Screen readers cannot read them & if you have your dni in a font they won't know if they can interact. Some fonts in general are too hard to read even without a screen reader which makes an account inaccessible to more people than you realize. (https://www.siteimprove.com/glossary/accessible-fonts/#:~:text=Inaccessible%20fonts%20tend%20to%20have,Slow%20the%20reader%20down)

For example, do not do this

It's best to not use any fonts when you are making an account so that way everyone is able to read your account clearly

" But fonts make my account look cute." You can still maintain a cute/aesthetic account without the use of fonts. For example, this is my insta account's bio and it still looks cute

Continuing from my next point, adding alt text to images also helps improve your account's accessibility.

"Image descriptions help those with visual impairments understand the meaning of an image. This description is often labeled alt text or alternative text.

When a screen reader reaches an image, it will read aloud the description that has been added. The user gets a sense of what that image is and its purpose in context." (https://www.brandeis.edu/web-accessibility/understanding/images-alt-text.html#:~:text=Image%20descriptions%20help%20those%20with,and%20its%20purpose%20in%20context.)

When writing alt text, you want to ensure it's as simple as possible. For example, if you have a picture of a dog jumping over a box, the alt text would be "a [color] dog is jumping over a box"

Also, please don't use alt text to get interactions from others, such as making the alt text "like and follow for more" on a picture of a dog, for example

The colors you choose for your account/dni banner are super important as well since sometimes they make it so it's hard to read what you wrote

Using similar colors (red & orange) or colors that blend into each other (white & light pink) makes it difficult to read what's on your page. Using lots of different colors can also make it difficult for a person to read what's going on (such as using lots of bright colors)

This is what not to do

This is what you should do

What helps is asking others if they can read something before & changing it if needed remember if a person who doesn't use a screenreader can't read it then neither can a person who does

Dni banners are going to be very similar to the last point but use colors people can read clearly & don't include too much info to the point where it's too crowded (include your main dni points)

Remember if someone is telling you they can't read your account please fix it accessibility is important for everyone

If you read this far please consider donating or commissioning me I need to pay off my credit card statement

[identityarchitect]

because im a nosy bitch who has distaste for current plural culture I'd love to hear your thoughts on current plural culture

(for me. the amount of information thats acceptable and expected to be shared will be the DEATH of my sanity)

Oh, jesus, where do I even begin. This got unexpectedly long so I'm going to put it under a cut.

Like you said, the amount of information shared is scary. Both because there are like 13yo recently discovered plurals who get this idea that it's a good or necessary thing to share as much information as possible about ones system, and nobody ever uses the privacy features on PK. It's one thing to keep track of info about headmates and another thing entirely to be posting a whole list of front triggers in a headmate-intros discord channel.

Speaking of headmate intros, I kind of have a love/hate relationship with the complicated description templates. On the one hand, I do like it when stuff is pretty. But on the other hand, there's a lot of kind of casual ableism/sanism in the plural community, as much as we'd want to pride ourselves on being relatively free of it. Fancy description templates, typing quirks, special characters in headmate displaynames, are all inaccessible to people using screenreaders or anyone with issues reading. And I try to be understanding to people with typing quirks because we have a few headmates with interesting ways of communicating and I get it, but like, you've really gotta provide a translation.

There's also just the way people interact with each other? Consistently using tons of tone tags, not asking about you& preferences (which tbf, in an ideal world preferences on you& are part of a generic introduction like preferences on headmates/alters/sysmates/parts and system/plural/etc). Trying to tag for every single possible trigger.

A lot of very large plural spaces (and frankly any large space that tries to account for triggers) end up with this issue where at some point, the trigger list is just too long. People aren't going to remember it, so anyone who is anxious about censoring correctly (which is everyone, because current plural culture has this way of making anxiety significantly worse) is going to be double-checking the list every five seconds, or just decide participating in conversation outside of more lax areas, like tw- channels, isn't worth it.

So they have to make a choice between cutting down the existing list, examining things and deciding if they're a common enough trigger (or bad enough, or if the user is in the server enough, or whatever the metric is) to remain on the list: or, they simply continue expanding the list and try to make it easier for people to censor or reference the list. But if they cut down on the list you inevitably have people who are like "wait, why is fires on there but not birthday parties? there's only one person in the server who's triggered by fires but five who are triggered by birthday parties", or "why did [obscure, situation-specific trigger] get removed? isn't it just as serious?" and etc.

And then there's moderation teams, which are... ok, let me make a venn diagram.

(No shade to teenagers. There are probably good teenage mods out there. I just haven't met them.)

Speaking from personal experience here, a lot of plural discord moderation relies on the current plural culture, which skews itself towards being extremely polite and nice and understanding so as to avoid unintentionally upsetting other people. (This is another one of the ways in which plural culture can and often does end up exacerbating anxiety & anxiety-adjacent behaviours/disorders like OCD.) So you have this discord server that doesn't really need moderation aside from admin stuff like adding channels or bots and pinning messages that regular users don't have the permissions to do. Then some person comes in and they're regularly talking about triggers out of the blue, acting aggressive towards other users, and because everyone wants to be polite and accepting, this user doesn't get dealt with for a very long time, especially because the mods just have no idea how to actually moderate. They don't have the confidence to make verdicts and use the power they have, and kick/ban users when necessary.

In essence, current plural culture wants to treat and trust every stranger like a close friend. You can run a discord server with little to no rules and give everyone admin permissions and whatever the hell: it's just got to be a closed friend discord server full of people that you know well enough to trust. And not only does this make plural spaces vulnerable to bad actors, it also makes them very uncomfortable to be in, as an aplatonic person who really doesn't want randos on the internet acting like we're childhood besties.

In that same vein, is it just me or does everyone and their mother seem to want a partner system? It's been actual years atp since I've been in a plural server that's actually active but there's this weird romantic overtone where any other system could be a potential partner system if you become emotionally close enough to them. Then if you're aro, or romance repulsed, or just not looking to date, or in a relationship already and not poly (which also, I get that dating as a system is a vastly different experience from dating as a singlet, but not everyone is poly), it feels like they just switch to a QPR instead of a romantic relationship? IDK, maybe that's me projecting since I'm QPR-repulsed. But it feels like the primary assumption for 'emotionally close' is 'romance or QPR' in plural spaces, in a way that feels different from regular amatonormativity. IDK it probably is just regular amatonormativity. But you'd think plurals would have deconstructed it even a little bit, right, since dating as a plural is such a vastly different experience. Whatever.

And canonmates. God. Ugh. Ughghhghj,. Look I get the inherent loneliness that comes with being an introject that has strong exomemories, but the resolution to this is not "try and start a relationship with a stranger who you only share one quality with (i.e remembering the same things from source)". Dear god. I have a not very good relationship with canonmates, since an ex of ours would in essence use them against us, but like. Augh.

And spiritual systems. The other day I saw a post on the plural subreddit that was like "Does anyone else live a double life?" and it was this introject describing the disparity between their IRL life and their in-headspace life. But they didn't clarify that it was in headspace and not like, an alternate world or something, so there was a comment being like "Uh, this is a dangerous lack of source separation." FUCKING source separation. I always get so mad at source separation.

I hate to label ourselves but our experiences most closely align with the general idea behind spiritual systems (this is as close as we will get to a concrete label). And it really seems to me that people will bring up spiritual systems as a gotcha against sysmeds and anti-endos, since the DSM technically validates spiritual systems by explicitly excluding them from the diagnostic criteria, and then turn around and act like spiritual systems either don't exist, or are delusional. (This is what I was thinking about earlier when I said the plural community has something of a sanism problem.)

Everyone assumes that in order for an introject to be healthy, they must have a degree of source separation, must be able to go "Yes, I know I am not my source, I recognise I will never be my source, etc". And if an introject can't, it's inherently dangerous and bad for them and the system must (even potentially against the introjects' will) make efforts to separate them from their source.

But even aside from all the sanist implications there, this completely falls apart when you think about spiritual systems. What about gateway systems, who do have headmates come from outside of the body? What about soulbonds, who are that character in their own universe? What about systems who don't want to prove that they're spiritual enough to be exempt from this 'if you think of yourself as your source in any way you are delusional and must be treated' BS?

Our V1 is literally V1 the robot from Ultrakill. This has never caused issues for it, or for us. I don't predict that it's going to.

Like, wasn't the general narrative around introjects "they have differing amounts of separation, differing opinions, and differing connections to their source. above all else, you should treat introjects like people, and ask them if you have questions about how they want to be treated!"? For ages it feels like that was the narrative, and now it's "introjects should be separated from their source, although they're allowed to have whatever opinion on it. in order to treat an introject like a person, you must acknowledge they're not literally a fictional character every fucking pictosecond".

There is definitely a lot more that I probably have to say on the topic but that's all I can think of right now.

Oh wait ok hold on I'm back because I remembered roles and origins and got mad again. Origins my most beloathed.

I could talk about the traumagenic/endogenic binary and how it's complete BS and even when we could be considered traumagenic we still had headmates that weren't traumagenic in origin, and how endogenic systems of all kinds can and often do have trauma that does and doesn't impact their system functioning, and trauma impacts systems in so many more ways than just if Sonic the Hedgehog showed up because you were being abused or just for the sake of being there, and 90% of the apparently well-meaning endo-ok sysmeds that talk about the necessecity of separate traumagenic and endogenic spaces are actually talking about disordered and nondisordered systems and EVEN THEN it's STILL a fake binary, but people more eloquent than me have probably gone over that.

I hate the assumption that every system has origins. We don't, and we're never going to. Even with the general idea being "nobody needs to tell you their origins and if you pressure them you're a dick" there's this expectation of knowing or labelling your origins. If you know your origins, you should be able to label them. If you don't know your origins, there are labels for that. What if someone doesn't give a shit? And again, what about spiritual systems, who don't have origins for other reasons?

Ok, I also just went and found some DMs with a friend so here's me quoting myself:

"it feels to us like the plural community doesnt strictly expect or want noncomplex plurality or a noncomplex relationship to ones plurality, but that these are sort of entry requirements to plural discord servers and other similar spaces"

"it feels like theres a collection of behaviours that you havr to perform like being in plural discord servers has always felt close to masking for us"

AGH AND PROBLEMATIC INTROJECTS. FUCK I HAVE SO MUCH MORE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT.

Roles are kind of similar to origins, imo, where it's this very simplistic and false structure and there's a pressure to box oneself and ones headmates into it. Like even when people acknowledge roleless systems, it feels like that's all they acknowledge, y'know? Like in their head there's systems where every headmate has a specific purpose and performs it to a T, and there's systems where this isn't the case. When it's so much more complex than that. For example: us! We're primarily roleless, and the things each headmate does is more like a volunteer job than a role, y'know. Except for this one headmate who found a role on Pluralpedia and went "that's me" and now it has a role.

It also feels like there's a specific set of roles each system should have, right? Like there's this idea that even if a system doesn't label or have roles, they still have the protective headmate who gets righteously angry on others' behalf, and the stressed and overworked caretaker, and the littles who use uwu-speak, and the serious and scary gatekeeper, and it's the nuclear family isn't it. They've recreated the nuclear family. One father and one mother and two and a half kids and the 'friendly' neighbourhood cop. Jesus. (The host can be the grandparents.)

And more than that there's... okay, right, how do I word this one.

Let's think about layers. Layers are distinct areas in headspace where different groups of headmates tend to reside. Beyond the base assumption that everyone has a consistent, laid-out, easily accessible headspace, there's this weird overtone that a system without layers is like, a system without layers yet, right? Like the two types of system are "systems that have layers" and "systems that don't have layers, but could" and there's no space for "systems that can't have layers". I think that's kind of what I'm getting at with the origins and roles bit, right? People nominally accept systems that don't have origins or roles, but there's this sense that what they're actually accepting is "systems that have origins" and "systems that have origins, just not public ones" or "systems that have roles" and "systems that have roles, and just don't label them".

This ties into the spiritual system bit, I think. It's not "psychological systems" and "spiritual systems" (which is still a false binary), it's "psychological systems" and "systems that believe they're spiritual systems" or "psychological systems whose spiritual beliefs impact their systemhood". Even when mentioning and talking about gateway systems and soulbonders people don't seem to be able to take those people at face value, regardless of their own personal beliefs on the matter. Maybe we're just hanging out in the wrong places.

The true originless roleless headspaceless spiritual system (i.e, US AGAIN) is a nonentity. There is no space for us to exist in the plural community because the predominant plural culture simply cannot comprehend that we exist.

Problematic introjects ... Like, how can you insist introjects must be treated like people, and must feel and consider themselves to be a distinct, separate entity from their source, and then also call them problematic? I hate the word problematic anyway but even moreso when the label is applied to every introject of whichever fucking minecraft youtuber turned out to be an abuser this time. Can't we just leave introjects alone? Fucking hell.

Anyway yeah. It sucks here.

[shards-of-astraea]

For posterity, here is all of the answered Tellonym questions transcribed.

Q: Hey, sorry. But why are the reasons for the character of Weiss being banned blocked out? It's kind of strange, especially given the character.

A: Hi there! Firstly we want to state that Weiss being banned from the group is NOT for OOC reasons relating to her character being problematic, or for any content regarding RWBY. We don't want to go into too much detail right now, but will at least say that Weiss Schnee will play an important role within the group and therefore cannot be applied for by regular members. Thank you for understanding!

Q: hi, since you specified that users can't use special characters in usernames i assume that accessibility is a focus? the large blocks of "censored" text in your documents (ESPECIALLY your faq) are borderline unreadable with a screenreader, they just read as "full block" repeated. while i understand having them there for the drama and lore reasons, it's an active hindrance and i recommend removing them or just having an explicit answer. just writing "weiss schnee cannot be apped for lore reasons" and removing a giant blacked out chunk of text won't harm your plot

A: Hello. We understand where you're coming from. The section of dark blocks has been removed from the FAQ, and the bit about Weiss has been rewritten to be readable by screen readers. We apologize for the inconvenience and will avoid using these types of text graphics in the future.

Q: Hi! Would it be possible to have both a character account and a main account with Tupper for the same character?

A: We're willing to be open to this option currently, but this may be changed in the future if we feel it compromises some of our bot integration.

Q: It looks like you can't see answers without the app... would you guys mind posting screenshots of the qnas?

A: Yes, we can do that! Visiting https://tellonym.me/shardsofastraea on your web browser will also show all of our answers as well. For the sake of ease towards the other social media sites we use, we'll also start compiling our questions and answers at the end of the day and posting them as a collective on twitter, tumblr and bluesky.

Q: i may be misreading this, so correct me if im wrong, but wouldn’t activity check being done by mun and not by muse make it… really easy to hoard characters? it seems like a recipe for disaster if someone could keep a bunch of inactive characters without using them just by having one character they’re active on…

A: As a team we are very aware of the potential issue, but we've discussed behind the scenes different methods to combat and/or discourage hoarding. While we know it may seem unconventional from the outside looking in, we're willing to try something a little different, and if it proves to be too large an issue to feasibly manage, we do have the process of switching to per-muse activity planned out. Overall, we want to encourage a more laid back approach to activity because, as adults, life can sometimes be demanding and we don't want someone's packed schedule to prevent them from participating.

Q: would you consider moving from tellonym to neospring or something? i dont want the tellonym app on my phone and i dont have a computer, its a little inaccessible for me to try and find out what’s already been answered

A: All of our answers will be screencapped and posted on social media, but we will do some investigating and see about moving the Q&A period to Neospring or another website for accessibility purposes.

Q: Isn't barring people from writing a somewhat popular canon character for "lore reasons" kind of strange? If a mod is writing them, you could just say that. Or pick a non-popular or non-important character from canon to use.

A: Hey Anon, I totally get where you're coming from. One of my favorite characters is Izuku Midoriya from My Hero Academia, and if I saw that a RP Group banned him from being apped for 'lore reasons', I'd find it pretty strange, too. Nevertheless, Weiss' exclusion from the roster of available characters is something that's integral to the story and at this point cannot be removed so easily, and the same story beats simply wouldn't hit if we used a character that's not connected to anyone or anything. I know it's frustrating, but the reality is that you'll simply have to trust not only us but the story we're writing. - Mod Alexandrite

[lugarn]

get 2 know me meme

tagged by the amazing @brifrischu! tagging @cryptidafter, @the-wanlorn, @sweveris, @chaos0pikachu, @turtlesocksv2, @gayzuko, @osmiabee, @technicallyverycowboy, and anybody else who wants to do it and hasn't done it yet! my answers after the read more for the benefit of mobile & screenreader users.

Do you make your bed?

i have a complex system of blankets that mean i get the benefit from a 'made' bed without having to make it most of the time, but if not for disability i would make my bed every night before i crawled in the way i did pre-chronic pain. it's such a nice feeling.

What’s your favorite number?

it's a tie between 6 and 7. six is my exaggeration number but seven is spiritually and personally meaningful.

What is your job?

the US government pays me to be crazy, but the pay is shit so i cannot recommend. (i'm disabled)

If you could go back to school, would you?

not in a million years. i didn't graduate middle school or high school. i have my GED and got 99th percentile in my scores, so i'm technically a whole ass person, but i fucking hate school.

Can you parallel park?

yes. i don't have my license but i can parallel park and also guide someone else verbally through parallel parking. the secret is that i had my learner's permit for two years and learned how to drive, but i never could get to where i wouldn't have panic attacks while driving or just 100% forget i was driving, so i don't have my license but i know how to drive.

A job you had that would surprise people?

i don't think there's an answer to this question that would surprise anyone because anyone who knows me knows i'm an absolute gremlin who has worked a million kinds of jobs before i was disabled. i've worked in erotica publishing, fast food, retail stores, as a line cook, doing landscaping, sex work, selling drugs, and more!

Do you think aliens are real?

i think aliens are real but i think a lot of ppl who are overinvested in aliens being real have wild ideas about how similar to us the aliens would be.

Can you drive a manual car?

i used to be able to but it's one of those things where i wouldn't feel confident because i haven't done it in over twenty years.

What’s your guilty pleasure?

doll customizing/bjd. it's so expensive but the dolls look so lovely after.

Tattoos?

i have 3 large tattoos; the only thing stopping me from being covered in them is cost.

Favorite color?

jewel tone violet

Favorite type of music?

something i can sing along to. it can be pop, rock, r&b, country, whatever. i just like to sing along to songs.

Do you like puzzles?

i love puzzles so much! jigidi come thru

Any phobias?

no, thank fuck. i've got enough anxiety in my life i don't need more!

Favorite childhood sport?

hide and seek

Do you talk to yourself?

yes? who doesn't talk to themselves, either mentally or outloud? i thought this was just a human normal thing?

What movies do you adore?

i love movies that explore uncomfortable things and/or that take you on a journey and commit to the ideas that they bring up. my favorite BL movies are "beyond the green mountain" and "sei no gekiyaku"; my favorite western movies are too numerous to list but the movies who changed me as a person who watches movies: brokeback mountain, black snake moan, cabin in the woods, and venom.

Coffee or tea?

tea! mostly sweet (black) tea but i love all to put too much sugar in all types of tea.

First thing you wanted to be growing up?

a teacher! i went to college for it briefly before my inability to learn the way schools teach became too much.

[a-captions-blog]

sending this in response to the ask about shorter descriptions—take this with a grain of salt as i am sighted, this is just what i've picked up from spending some time writing descriptions myself following guidelines from other web accessibility sources outside tumblr.

while i can't find any sources on "industry standard" descriptions being ten words or fewer specifically (i did see fifteen from one source, though,) i do see that alt text should generally be around 200 characters at the most, as alt text should be concise and give just enough detail to understand the image clearly while not including anything that isn't vital to that understanding. some screenreaders aren't compatible with alt text that goes over that limit.

however, a lot of what you do on this blog is outright transcriptions, which isn't quite the same. aside from that, what most people (including you) who write descriptions on here are writing are long descriptions, which are intended for describing images in more depth than alt text and aren't meant to be concise in the same way. i think part of the problem is that people on this website tend to use "image description" synonymously with "alt text," implying that alt text and long descriptions should work the same way and aren't made with distinct (though related) goals in mind.

on websites outside of tumblr, long descriptions are usually used for images containing lots of vital information like charts and graphs, in conjunction with a short description in alt text—the alt says something like "a chart showing (general data)," and the long description provides the specific information, sometimes linked on another page or put in a collapsible menu so that the user can choose to access it. on tumblr however, especially when you're not the original poster of something, i don't know what a good equivalent to this practice would be. you could always warn at the beginning of a description that it is meant to be a detailed/long description or a transcription of lots of text.

image description guidelines are also not the same as guidelines for describing audio or video. this isn't something i do as much as image description, so i don't have any specific knowledge about it, but i'd keep that in mind too.

i don't mean to come off as contrarian to that anon (because i think their criticism is justified and i'm open to correction if there's something about their perspective i'm missing,) or condescending towards you (as i'm sure you probably know some of this already, being a caption blog,) i just thought i'd provide some context i don't see often that might help you figure out what you want to do with your captions ^_^b (happy thumbs-up emoticon).

[Previous ask for context.] Hello! Thank you for your input. The difference in purpose between alt text and long descriptions makes sense to me, and I have some non-Tumblr experience with video transcriptions that I try to apply here as well. I do agree with the previous anon that my descriptions for art and such tend to be a bit verbose, so I can definitely work on trying to capture the general essence of the piece rather than every minute detail. I think I will go with the idea of putting a pre-description for longer captions that are as concise as possible and mention that the following description is lengthy. I will also add the ‘long description’ tag moving forward in case people want to block that pre-emptively. I am also open to further discussion on this if anyone (especially screen reader users) wants to comment :] (rectangular smiley)

[uncanny-tranny]

hi! i was wondering if you could provide image IDs in plaintext as well as alt text? i'm visually impaired but i don't use a screenreader, and i can't see the alt text at ALL on any of my devices. additionally, i know some friends who CAN see the alt text, but it's either too eyestrain-y or too small to be able to read, so image IDs would really help!!

thanks!!

I usually do put the descriptions in the ALT because you can edit them without people needing to reblog the amended version, but I can certainly copy-pasting it in the text itself, and I'd especially be interested to know if more people would appreciate the ID in the text itself.

I didn't copy and past originally because I don't know if it would be really annoying for a screen reader to read the ALT and then go onto read the plain text right after? I'm not a screen reader user, so I would appreciate any thoughts on this because I was going off my presumption of how it works.

I honestly wish tumblr would auto edit the entire post when you actually edit the OG one so that people don't have to have the wrong post reblogged :/

[pluraladvice]

Hi! 2 things:

1: Your DNI banner's image description is way too detailed for the relevance it has to the rest of the post body. While I can skip to the next post as soon as my screenreader begins to process it, it's still annoying and makes things more complicated for visually impaired and blind users. I'd recommend transcribing the text on it alone or writing it out as plaintext instead of a banner image. Thank you!

2: Admittedly, this may be out of your scope, but: I'm thinking of getting SimplyPlural to organize ourselves, but we're stuck in an abusive household and I'm scared the body's parents might notice we're doing "weird things" and take our phone away (particularly because I'm visually impaired and may be unable to notice when they're looking at our screen). Any tips on hiding it from them? I use a Xiaomi phone if that helps.

Edit: This ask is in regards to a banner we have since replaced with the current one.

Hello! I'm visually impaired myself and I don't feel I need to change it, I'm sorry it's annoying but I myself prefer when it includes what it looks like, otherwise I miss out on things seeing people don't miss out on!

Personally I would suggest not leaving any kind of trail that could be traced back to you! Discord has pk and while it's a little bit more. Hm. How do you put it? Difficult I think? To track with, at least it's easier to get rid of the trace that it was ever you in the first place as well as being able to have a trusted friend create a server with you if you're comfortable with it so you can track those things and just. Leave the server if necessary. Whole apps dedicated to certain things make it much easier to pinpoint exactly everything an abusive parent or guardian needs to so I suggest doing absolutely everything in your power to make it as vague as you possibly can in terms of app usage. Have a notes app? Use that if they don't check it often and back it up to an email they don't know about. As for hiding it I can also suggest a screen protector that is a privacy screen. They basically make it so unless you are right over the phone using it you cannot read what is on the screen and you can find them pretty cheap! Turning down your brightness, especially while using the privacy screen, can also make it very difficult to read the screen!

[transgenderprototype]

I should make a sideblog that makes posts that are typed l1k3 th1s or any other way into something that's friendly to screenreader users since those people are too fucking lazy or too much of an asshole to do it themselves

[captain-kit-adventuress]

[image id: a teal background with white effects made to mimic rippling water, with wavy white text that reads, "if my options are to vote for the guy who is committing genocide or vote for the guy who will also probably commit genocide then sorry to say I'm not voting for fucking either of them. Plain and simple. Like I'm gonna be completely honest I could care less about the future of this country if complicity in genocide is the cost." /end id]

Ok, first of all, I wish tumblr had never added these text effect things because unless the OP puts an id underneath or attached to the post, they're fucking unusable to anyone with a screenreader, as well as those with low vision or difficult vision who don't use assistive tools to read. Low vision or blind users or anyone else who needs it shouldn't have to rely on the spotty kindness of others to ensure this site is usable to them. Which actually is a great segue into my point.

That image is a fucking nonsense take. Just complete and utter bullshit from inside out.

You will be complicit in genocide whether you vote for Biden or not. It's much more a matter of how widespread those genocides are rather than if they'll happen. Yeah, it's a shitty choice. But while you're so convinced that not voting for Biden will keep your hands clean, I can guarantee you that doing nothing will make them much, much bloodier.

When Trump is elected because you were too busy pouting that your shitty revolution didn't come to pass because you weren't actually willing to get your hands dirty even to save yourselves, people. will. die. There's no "will probably also commit genocide" about it. He tried the last time he had the White House, and he will try again, only this time he doesn't have to worry about reelection.

And a lot of the people he and his cronies will be wiping out first are going to be marginalised minorities, because at present, they're some of the most vulnerable in the American nation. Given the inescapable rash of massively ignorant comments I've seen on this site, those groups cannot at all count on leftist support to prevent that from happening, because you seem to think that if there is even one single "bad" person in a group, it's ok to write off that entire group.

The people you're ok with writing off? That's going to be Indigenous folk, and Hispanics, and Black people, and elderly people, and queer people, and more and more and more. It will be Sikhs and Buddhists and Muslims and Jews and Christians alike, along with atheists and folk religions. (Anyone commenting on how any of these groups deserve it will be blocked and reported.)

American politics, at present, is zero-sum. It's binary. If Choice 1 doesn't get enough votes, Choice 2 will win. If Biden can't get every single vote on the left there is to get, Trump will win.

I don't care that you're angry and disaffected with the state of things, because you're still not seeing the point, and it proves you have no idea what real solidarity is and from where I'm sitting, your "revolution" consists mostly of vague consumerist activism (which is not a thing) and magical handwaving. There is no direct line between not voting in an election in conjunction with boycotting a few brands which gets to the level of triggering a nationwide protest against fascisim that ends in reinventing out of whole cloth the entire American system. Turnout for Biden is the only option left in this fight.

The ideologically pure option is to vote Biden, because he's the only chance most of us have of surviving long enough to get someone better in. To stand in solidarity you must swallow your pride and stop making this election about you. Do not use the Palestinians as props because you're unhappy with your choices. If you hated the state of politics so much, you should have gotten involved earlier. The next best option is to vote for Biden.

There are no other options.

[thatonebirdwrites]

Y'all, there are accessibility programs for text-to-speech that can be used instead of this guy's stuff. In fact, every phone and every operating system comes with them. As a disabled person who uses text to speech, I find it's much better to use the following that's built into operating systems and/or privacy-oriented extensions for browsers.

Just so y'all know, I did not include any AI TTS software such as Voice Dream, TTSMaker, and Natural Reader since those require uploads to convert to speech. Below is apps and settings that function fairly well, and do not use uploads (as they are locally converted on your device).

Text to Speech (TTS)

For Microsoft suite, there's a read-aloud option in the immersive reader view in Edge, docs, and other tools. In any document, click View > Immersive Reader, and then press the play button that appears. It comes with a variety of options. Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari, and other browsers also have read aloud options built in, but there is also the excellent Read Aloud extension that I've used at times. The great thing about Read Aloud extension is that's it's built for privacy too -- as the synthesis of turning text to speech is done locally on your computer and not through online servers. You can even use it to read PDF documents in your browser tab; I've tested it and it works well for AO3 fanfics.

Android has a Select-to-speak option that I've used. This is found under Settings < Accessibility. Once activated, you can then click on the text you want spoken and options will come up. It's customizable with a variety of voices.

Every Apple device comes with Spoken Content feature. This feature has a wide variety of options, and its speak selection option will speak the content of a webpage, eBook, or whatever through the use of keyboard shortcuts. You can find this feature under Settings < Accessibility. It functions similarly to the Android select-to-speak.

Ice Cream eReader has TTS options as well, but it's a Windows / Android program. You open the eBook file in it, and can use the settings to turn on the TTS. As it's local to your computer, it can be used offline.

Balaboka is another option for Windows users. It's a program you install in Windows, and it has a pretty robust set of features and customization. It also reads a variety of files, and can produce an sound file in a variety of formats. Since it's on one's computer, it doesn't necessarily need Internet connections to function (though you can use it to read websites too). Various eReaders like Libby or Kobo also have built in text to speech options under their settings (usually listed in accessibility part of settings).

Moonreader has TTS options in its settings. I use Moonreader a lot, and find it does a good job with its TTS options. It's free to use, though you can buy it to access extra features. (Buy once, no subs.) It's usable on most devices, though I've never tested it on Apple Devices. I use it mostly on Windows or Android. It can be used offline or online.

Calibre is a robust eReader that also has TTS options in its settings. It has a wide variety of options and voices for its TTS. This is an open-source project and also free to use. You can use it on Windows, Linux, Mac, portable usb drives, android, or apple devices. It can be used offline or online.

Screenreaders

Screenreaders are more comprehensive than TTS. While TTS tends to focus on the text only, screenreaders can also read menus, emojis, links, spreadsheets, taskbars, etc. Screenreaders are commonly used by those with limited eyesight or are blind. They may also be used by people who may find text read out loud easier for navigation or understanding the content.

Again, all operating systems and mobile phones have screenreaders available in the Accessibility settings. All of the built in screenreaders have multiple language options.

For Mac/Apple, Voice Over does a great job and is the most popular screenreader for those using Apple Products. It's built into all Apple devices.

For Linux, there's the Speakup app, which does a pretty good job at screenreading.

NVDA is an opensource project by disabled people and it's free! It's one of the best screenreaders I've used. It has a lot of great features, plus it's portable! You can put it on an USB Stick and then use it on any computer. It has a wide range of languages too.

Chrome has a screenreader extension. I've never tested it but some disabled folks I know like it.

Firefox has several screenreader extensions. Fire Vox is one of the more popular ones as it also has TTS functionality too. It uses keyboard shortcuts to activate it, and has various customization features to tailor it to a person's needs.

Point is, do your research on the options out there. There's a lot of free TTS and screenreaders that can do a better job than Weitzman's Booktoapp and speechify. The ones I highlighted above are all free plus they don't steal people's works.

On a related note: If you need a speech to text option, all of the above operating systems and browsers have that built into their accessibility menu. If you have money to spend, the Dragon Software Suite is what's used by professionals for dictation and comes with built in privacy and extensive features.

Hi; I don't know if you're still following the word-stream stuff, but the app is back online on the app store as "booktok - books and podcasts". The reviews marking it as having AI scraped data are still on the page itself, even though the name has changed, and duckduckgo still directs to their page if you look up "word-stream audiobooks"-- although if I don't know how long that will last. The website is seemingly gone, but the app still presumably has access to all the stolen works in the database.

Best regards, -someone else whose fics were stolen

yup

word-stream is back

it just calls itself—in an obvious attempt to profit from the TikTok upheaval—BookTok, now. and it’s not just the app, either: the whole website is back online, same as it was just before Cliff Weitzman took it down.

(in case you missed it, here are the original story & the update.)

fortunately (so far) the fanfiction category hasn't been re-added, but if you go to the store page for the app you can see that it’s still using 'fan-created universes' as advertising.

Weitzman didn't register the app under his own name this time, but through something called 'Oak Prime Inc'. hilariously, however, the email address listed in BookTok's privacy policy still refers to word-stream.com, so if Cliff was trying to scrub the connection between Speechify and his BookTok app, he didn't do a very thorough job.

here's the thing (and i'm about to put this up in a separate, more easily digestible post): if you take a look at the terms & conditions of Cliff's other platform, Speechify, it claims a truly comprehensive license to use the works uploaded to that platform in any way Cliff sees fit, including publishing and monetizing it elsewhere. and i keep seeing posts on Reddit and Bluesky from both readers and writers, happily using the Speechify app to read fanfic, advanced reader copies and their own yet-to-be-published work to them.

this is a BAD IDEA. Cliff has already proven that he will take work authored by others without their permission and redistribute it wholesale if he thinks it might make him money.

Cliff is the financial beneficiary of both Speechify and word-stream/booktokapp. it seems pretty obvious to me that he's trying to claim, via Speechify's terms & conditions, that every work uploaded to Speechify is his to do with whatever he pleases, which naturally includes moving them to this other platform so he can charge people for two subscriptions instead of just the one.

thank you so much for keeping an eye on this, anon, and for reaching out!! like i said, another post will go up today about the above, but i'm going to ask you all to help ensure that my posts & my name aren't the only ones giving voice to this message. when i tried to approach people about this issue on social media, often the—completely justified!—response was 'why should I take your word for it?' and Wikipedia only allowed the mention of Weitzman's copyright infringement to remain on his page when 'The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction' was listed as a source.

it can't just be me. DON’T take my word for it. do your own research (i would love to be proven wrong about this!), talk to your friends, engage with posts on social media similar to the ones i mentioned above (those are just some examples, don’t pile on to the OPs!) and make sure people know what they're jeopardizing. help me protect authors from money-grubbing shitheads like this one.

[hidef-quatrevingt]

mecha’s image description & visual accessibility reference post:

disclaimer: This is mostly a reference for myself for the image descriptions I write in the future, including common things I see that I want to avoid. Some are with screenreader users in mind, some are with non-screenreader users in mind. I’m not claiming this is where describing images should begin or end, and i’m not the only low vision person out there. if you want to have better reference guides, i find here to be helpful.

Image description in alt text: Not all people who need image descriptions can or do use screenreaders. Alt text is hard to access without a screenreader on most browsers and versions of the app. Just put it in the post. If you don’t, it’s just showing that you don’t actually care about accessibility.

Image description under a read more, in a reblog, in small print, etc: This is a big one, and I’ve seen a ton of posts about it, but it can’t hurt to restate. This is inaccessible, and shows that your “accessibility” is performative. If the image description is under a readmore, if anything happens to your blog, then it will no longer be accessible. If a description is long, that’s ok. Just tag the post as long instead of using a read more. If you post art (or anything) with an image description in the reblog, people will have to go searching through the replies for it. It also makes it easy to separate the ID from the rest of the post. If the description is in small print, or otherwise formatted not in plain text, it’s inaccessible. Not all people who need image descriptions use screenreaders.

Put the most important info first: This is so someone can skip the screenreader to the next paragraph once they get the idea of the post.

“Image ID”: ID stands for “image description.” It is a common misconception that ID in this context means “identification” instead.

Capitalization (id vs ID): Maybe you’re going for aesthetics, or maybe you don’t capitalize letters very often. Keep in mind that screenreaders tend to read “id” (lowercase) as a word, like Freudian psychoanalysis, while “ID” (uppercase) is read as the individual letters. Hopefully you’re aiming for the individual letters, since that’s what Image Description is short for in this context.

Bold, Italicized, and Strikethrough text: I don’t know about others, but the screenreader I use doesn’t tell you which text is bold, italics, or strikethrough. If that is in any way relevant to understanding text in the image you’re describing, please specify what sections are bold. Example of how to do that: The text says: “My favorite color is green.” The word green is bolded.

Colored text: Similar to the above, colored text on Tumblr is not registered as different than plain text with a screenreader. It would be helpful if you made a note of colored text. You can use the same format I specified above.

Colored text, the sequel: Provide plain text when you‘re making posts that use colored text. Some people don’t use screenreaders, and they don’t need to justify that for you to make your posts accessible to them. Colored text on its own is inaccessible because it simply cannot be seen well by some people.

Video descriptions: Don’t separate video and audio descriptions. I don’t understand why this would make sense to anybody to do, but I’ve seen people do it regardless. In most videos, the audio and video are relevant to each other, and separating them makes it really confusing. I know it seems obvious, but think: is the content of the video actually understandable given the description you’ve provided?

Note when the image description is done, in a way that can be understood with or without a screenreader: The commonly used square bracket ] is not sufficient, because screenreaders do not read them aloud. Doing this well is most commonly achieved by putting “End ID” at the end of the description.

Sorry if this is too long, but if you do use this I hope it’s helpful. Have a good day!💗

[gothhabiba]

Najia I've been wanting to write image descriptions for awhile but I've been worrying about going into too much or too little detail or writing things in a way that might unintentionally hinder screen readers. Obviously I know this doesn't have to be perfect but do you have any links or tips on how to best write them?

The Cooper Hewitt guidelines for image descriptions are pretty intensive and useful especially for art and descibing people

This post from user blindbeta provides tips for captioning and image describing various media including tumblr posts

Users pathos-logical and orange-airplanes created a google doc full of templates to help you describe memes without having to figure out to describe each one each time

Don't censor words that aren't censored in the original images

I'd be inclined to include longer image descriptions for art than for anything else. Remember that words = time

Another tip is that many screenreaders allow users to tab through the links on a page, so putting your hyperlink on a phrase that describes where the link goes on its own is better than just hyperlinking the words "here" or "link." This will also make it easier for people who have difficulty with fine motor control to click your links.

[alexseanchai]

Which is not going to happen until everyone correctly uses alt text to ensure screenreader users get the same experience as visual users, and until nobody has crap enough internet that images don't load though text does, and until it's no longer necessary for anyone to rely on someone having described the image in a reblog to see what was there before the image was replaced by the Tumblr-removed-this-image banner.

And until nobody feels impelled to use image descriptions to explain the context and/or joke to people who can see the image just fine but aren't understanding it. Like with the image above, actually. Without context it's just, oh somebody can't paint well, didn't do too badly on the eyes and nose but the rest is a loss. I linked to the context in the image description linked below:

Also image alt text in a lot of mobile apps is now visible to visual users, which is an improvement over it only being visible when the image itself isn't—but as far as I can tell, none of those apps allow one to copy the alt text. Which means one can't paste the alt text into a reupload of the same image, and one can't paste the alt text into Google Translate. Image descriptions after the image don't have those problems.

Which is six different ways I can name and probably at least one I've forgotten that make accurate image descriptions an important accessibility tool, and therefore at least six different accessibility functions that need replaced in order for people to stop writing image descriptions.

So uh. Have fun with that?

wait

[classicslesbianopinions]

Sorry to sound like a Tumblr rookie, but what is the meaning of ID Descriptions?? it's an inner joke within the community or it serves a technical purpose? 😅

hi thanks for asking! image descriptions make pictures more accessible to blind and visually impaired people, especially those who use screenreaders to access the internet. it's not a joke at all, it's an accessibility tool! many websites use alt text for this, which is the text you see sometimes when an image doesn't load, but tumblr's alt text is unreliable and not everyone uses it, and alt text usually also has a character limit. so especially for more complicated images or large amounts of text it's better to describe them in the text of the post itself!

a while ago i decided i would describe every image i reblogged on my main and it's a habit i've carried over to this blog too. adding image descriptions to posts, especially any original posts, does a lot to make this site more usable to blind and visually impaired users, and can help other disabled people as well!