Bluesky has one of my favorite settings I've seen on a website in a long while ~ you can require alt text on an image before posting. It's such a beautiful little form of self governance, to show you care about accessibility, while acknowledging that, hey, sometimes we all forget to add it when we get excited about Good Content™️ for the internet.
Now I could go in depth about the reasons why alt text should always be provided. It's a required WCAG criterion, accessibility is important, you’ve heard this rant (maybe even from me) before etc. That’s not what this post is about. I’ve noticed that many folks think about alt text only in cases of screen readers and sight-limited users. However we often forget that there are many other uses for alt text, especially cases where images simply can’t be loaded. Low speed internet connection, limited data usage, plane wifi. And that’s still not what this post is about!!
My belief is that we should begin to care a little more deeply about alt text, not because it is mandatory or useful, but because it is a joyful little creation of the internet in its own right.
My dear friend Henry has always been walking this walk. He’s hilarious and quite witty, especially on Bluesky, but every once in a while I don't get the joke. Luckily for me he posts really thorough content in his alt text, and every time it gives me the context I need to enter the inner circle of The Bit. Sometimes the alt text itself holds something even more clever (in my opinion) and I get a bigger kick out of it than the main image or post itself. This is exactly what I want more of us to strive for. It’s fun and it’s funny and it broadens the possibility of getting your joke across.
One of my favorite experiences with alt text in an unusual shape came whilst on an across-the-world flight. As you may know, many airlines provide free internet connection for messaging only, and because I am cheap and travel a lot, I refuse to pay for anything more than that. While on this lengthy flight, a group chat I was in really got going ~ shots were being fired in all directions, jokes slinging, and names (lovingly) being called. And then the cavalry (memes) started rolling in too. I however stopped being able to participate since the images wouldn’t download (or send) over this limited wifi. Desperate to not be left out of the shenanigans whilst extremely bored and ignoring my upside down paperback on the tray table however, I demanded that all my friends describe for me in a secondary follow up text exactly which meme or gif they had sent. We all eventually got so into it that we stopped sending the images entirely and sent only the descriptive messages back and forth in a little game of “can you figure out which meme I’m referring to”. Guess what? This is alt text!! It was such a pure and delightful form of it, because it helped me stay included in a limited situation and became a fun show of rapport between us all.
Back when the Clock App (Tiktok) was at risk of being shut down completely in the US, many had the valid concern wondering how these cultural moments were to be saved for posterity. A friend of a friend had the inspiration to create a book of TikToks. He decided to go through a handful of the most viral TikToks of all time, write them down in paragraph form (of course) and publish it as a book. It’s absolutely hilarious to flip through and try to figure out which video each page is referring to. And whether you know the original video or not, the joke, or at least the enjoyment of some goofy internet content comes across. Joyful and unique alt text strikes once again!
A few weeks ago I was at All Day Hey and Lola Odelola gave a fantastic talk on “Alt Text as Artistic Medium”. I had started this post on the flight over to the conference and it felt like beautiful serendipity to hear her beliefs and advice. The conversations between friends after the conference and the alt text selfie thread that followed were even more fuel for this thought process. Why not allow alt text to exist not only as a “fallback” to an image, but something creative and poetic in its own right. Lola reminded us that we can use it to describe meaning, not just literal descriptions.
So the next time you’re struggling to writing alt text or a description for a video, instead of just hitting the basic criterion, ask yourself -
How would I describe this to a friend over the phone?
My friend hasn't seen the video I'm trying to reference and I can't pull it up while operating a motor vehicle, how do I articulate it so that they still get the joke?
If this were hanging in a museum in front of me and I asked the person across from me to close their eyes, how would I depict the way this piece of art makes me feel?
Alt text can and should be whimsy. It can be fun to create and fun to read. Not only do your users that can’t access your images, for whatever reason, deserve to be considered, they deserve to be included. And users who don’t “need” the alt text deserve to consider why it might expand their enjoyment or understanding of your content too.
♡