#accessiblity

[acutely-autistic]

I think we should make pride and queer safe spaces more accessible to all disabled queers. Like, as an autistic queer, pride is not accessible to me because it’s so loud with so many people all talking at the same time. Gay bars are a big no go for me because I hate loud music and don’t drink. And that’s not even getting into physical disabilities. Are you making sure that pride is wheelchair accessible? Are you making sure that everyone is being mindful of service dogs? Are there wheelchair accessible bathrooms?

[theelf-online]

Reverting the Discord UI update:

For IOS - For Android

[sweetnessfollowsmp3]

(un)friendly reminder that the alt text feature is meant for describing your images to make them accessible, not to add “funny” commentary :)

[mibyledraws]

alt text 101 for artists

I’m not an accessibilty expert, but I gathered these tips here and there, and it has really been helping me writing better alt texts - and I hope they will help others too!

Alternative text is a description of an image that can be read by a screen reader. It also can help the understanding of an image for people who don't use screen readers.

What do you write?

It all goes down to including what is relevant to give the user an accurate idea of your artwork:

the medium you used to make the artwork (is it a digital illustration? a traditional oil painting? a graphite pencil sketchbook doodle?)

the subject of the artwork

anything that is relevant for understanding the meaning of the artwork. For instance, is the lighting important, or does it bring a particular meaning or mood?

Write sentences - don’t just throw away key words. EDIT: don't write full sentences, but phrases and fragments to keep your description concise

adding one more thing after getting feedback: keep it concise! Under 125 characters (even 100 is best)

Where/how do I add it?

The alt text feature is more or less obvious on the apps we usually post on. In doubt, please just search for it on a web browser, you’ll find how to add it in the blink of an eye :)

On Twitter

enable the alt text reminder! Everytime you post an image, it will remind you to add alt text if you forgot it. Go in your settings, then “accessibility, display and languages”. Then “accessibility”, and in the media section, check the “receive image description reminder” box.

on web browser: once you’ve uploaded your image, click on “add description” under it.

on the app: once you’ve uploaded your image, click on the “+alt” bubble in the right bottom corner that appeared on your image.

On Instagram

at the bottom of the posting page, go in “advanced settings”, then “accessibility”, then “write the alt text”.

On Tumblr

once you’ve uploaded your image, click on the three dots icon that appears when your mouse is on the image, then click on “update the description”.

On Mastodon

once you’ve uploaded your image, click on the “description missing” message that appears on it.

On your website (portfolio, shops, etc)

Where and how you can add it depends on the platforms but there’s always a way! My tip for this would be to schedule yourself an alt text audit of your website to take a moment when you would search how to do it and when you would add all the necessary alt texts! I’d also encourage you to pay attention to some other accessibility features - for instance contrast between background and text. There are lots of ressources out there and I admit it can sound overwhelming: digital accessibility is an expertise, a job field in itself after all. In my opinion, taking it a few steps at a time is a good way to go! For instance I like to do little accessibility audits of my portfolio every once in a while and check a new area that I might have missed before.

I forgot to add it, what should I do?

On some platforms, you can add it after posting if needed - it’s the case on the Instagram app for instance. Always try to see if you can add it afterwards. If you can’t, add it in the replies (if it’s on twitter for instance) or edit the body/caption of your post if you can change this but can’t change the alt text.

Adding it as a “simple description” instead of an alt text that will be read by a screen reader in lieu of the image isn’t perfect, but having it somewhere very close to the image in plain text that will get to be read by screen readers is way better than nothing to my knowledge :)

It's Disability Pride Month (July, when I'm writing this)

I wanted to take some time to encourage you to take some time and energy this month, and at anytime of the year, when you can, to learn about Disability Justice. I’m not the best at explaining what it is, and how much there is at stake. I’m better at this, making small guides about what fellow artists can do to make their work more welcoming to disabled people. But it doesn’t mean Disability Justice isn’t close to my heart and that I shouldn’t even mention it.

There’s a documentary about the Disability Rights movement that I can only highly recommend - it’s Crip Camp. It’s on netflix, and even watchable in full on Youtube.

Pay attention to us, disabled people, to what we have to say. ”Nothing about us without us”: our perspectives and opinions are those you must focus on when it comes to disability and to our lives.

[sirenium]

I don't think someone is instantly a bad person if they have ableist behavior. Think about it, society is BUILT on ableism. We're all raised on that shit. There are examples of this in everyday life: 'good listening' habits that are beaten into us in school, sidewalks that are built on fucking hills, cities that WOULD be walkable had they installed more seating areas, etc etc the list goes on.

So it's almost natural to be some degree of ableist, even if you yourself are disabled, because it has been normalized through millions of things abled people probably wouldn't even notice. This doesn't excuse the behavior, but it's important to note that not every person is ableist out of malice.

[khaotictm]

Hello! There is a project in my sociology class for college that requires interviews! As someone with disabilities (physical and learning) and is in STEM myself (neuroscience major), I really wanted to do my project on this :D! So, if you have the time and identify with being disabled please fill out this form! It is completely ANONYMOUS! As for what is STEM, I am accepting anyone that is studying and/or has a job relating to the STEM field including social sciences. Hopefully it should not take too long to fill out!!! I would be SO appreciative!

[syls-chaos]

How accessible is your local church service?

I give mine 4/10, loud, overwhelming, and so many stairs

[peepawsammywammywoo]

(Me on my way to tell tumblr about my day)

Apologies if my spelling is bad, I cant find my glasses ☹️

Yesterday I went to my first ever accessible playground.

(Alot more happened then but this was my highlight!!)

I live in the country newzealand, I do not live near this playground but I will say where it is for safety reasons 👍 there are not many playgrounds like this.

It's was huge! And I could use my wheelchair with it!

I am a ambligitory wheelchair user, I walk with a cane most days but lately I need the chair more, exapeuxally on long days.

The playground has,

Wheelchair trampoline, it was AMAZING

The entire park was accessible, it was tons of swings, some swings had belts for people who may need them, adult sized ones!

the slides were accessible to get to, so many diffrent slides! Amazing

It had sensory areas with diffrent textures and all kinds of stuff

It had spinny stuff that were easy to use.

It had a zip line. It wasn't the easiest to get to but it was so fun!

So much happened there, I'm getting old for these (almost 16) but im so glad I learnt about it, I only opened a few days ago!

[proudfreakmetarusonniku]

if you ever make a turn based video game I love you forever and will give you a big kiss on the forehead btw. I can’t even play a round of Mario party without extreme pain in my hands after, and my reflexes are inconsistent at best, so most real time games cause me genuine physical pain. there’s some i put up with bc they’re so good but it’s still not pleasant. but turn based games? I don’t feel awful after playing them and I don’t feel like I’m at an unfair disadvantage. if I lose, it’s bc I made a silly decision and not because I could not move in time without pain.

it’s such a shame they’re becoming less popular. it’s making gaming as a whole feel less and less accessible, at least modern gaming not counting indie titles (which is why I primarily play old and or indie games). it’s cool technology is allowing stuff like that to happen easier but it feels like I’m getting left behind sometimes. so whenever i see any sort of popular rpg or strategy or sim game lately it’s like a lifeline to a hobby i feel ignores people like me sometimes. it’s why I’ll probably never give up on pokemon (except legends Arceus that’s physically painful 4 me) and it’s why I was genuinely excited to learn that a big rpg i just heard of that came out this month was turn based!

[chronic-chronic]

I'm moving to an accessible apartment next month! Horray!!!

[bnyrbt]

question: does "seuizure warning" work as a flashing lights tag?

i've seen epileptic tumblr users advocate against tagging stuff as "epilepsy warning" because search engines will catch the word "epilepsy," and show it to epileptics searching for epilepsy-related content. "seizure warning" has the same potential problem, but i don't think i've seen it discussed as much. i use tags like "flashing," "flashing lights," "flashing gif," "eye strain," "low framerate," etc. "flashing" and "eyestrain" are my go-tos, since they're more general, & therefore more likely to be filtered. i also tag every post with a gif in it, even if it doesn't specifically contain flashing lights. i'd recommend checking out photosensitivity- and accessiblity-related tags and blogs for clearer information; i don't have personal experience with epilepsy or seizures, and i'm not an accessibility expert, just someone with occasional migraines who cares about the subject ^-^

[23beesinacoat]

Sometimes the worst thing with inaccessible stuff is being able to look it straight in the face, know it obviously doesn’t need to be that way, know it doesn’t really change my life, but not being able to do shit about it.

Like why weren’t there captions on one of the videos I play for people at work. Why? No fucking reason.

But it felt like shit to see people who couldn’t hear the video be unable to get the information for no reason other than laziness on our part.

[mibyledraws]

Thanks for adding alt text to your art!! Love to see artists making their work accessible

Of course!! <3 I love to see it too tbh Speaking of, I wish alt text reminders were on every platforms and opt-in by default, I feel like it would be a nice step towards making socials & art more accessible

[myemoreligion]

Im a psych student

which means im just gonna drop some academic papers on gender and sexuality here bc this stuff needs to be more accessible :D

[kinkyfuckeryoftas]

Hey I dont know if anyone still follows me because I go for like months and months without posting but if yall have like TWO seconds, can you go and upvote this post? Discord’s enlarged text is broken, and this is the most recent complaint on their accessibility forum. It makes the channels unreadable, which is really not ideal for anyone but especially visually impaired people. Discord needs a volume of attention on this issue to get them to fix it, so maybe upvote and/or comment if you can to help bring it to their attention? 

Thank you!!

[fluttershiesworld]

if you put a “this post must be reblogged by everyone” on a post and then don’t describe the images in it im fucking stealing something out of your house