Alt text:
a person looking like a combination of Lain (from Serial Experiments Lain) and Misato (from Neon Genesis Evangelion) holding an energy drink, looking drunk
“these are the perks of using free software, shinji”
Alt text:
a person looking like a combination of Lain (from Serial Experiments Lain) and Misato (from Neon Genesis Evangelion) holding an energy drink, looking drunk
“these are the perks of using free software, shinji”
alt text isnt supposed to provide context for media that even sighted people would have to recognize.
Exactly. It should describe what you’re looking at. For example, her short dark spiky hair or the fact that she’s wearing fishnet gloves and stockings.
I think you’re misunderstanding them.
If you think the joke is about her appearance then yes the exact appearance matters (which would be valid, if this would be about unixsocks). The characters are what’s important to me here instead.
Lain is a computer enthusiast, who is kind of a shut in (at first). The above line is out of character for her but not Misato. If you don’t know these people then you wouldn’t know this, even if you have perfect vision.
Alt text should describe what you’re communicating, not necessarily every detail.
Eh, maybe? Most of the transcriptions I’ve seen, particularly the ones from the explicitly accessibility-focused now-defunct Transcribers of Reddit (the founder of which I was in close communication with, as a co-mod of an unrelated subreddit) try to simply describe what you’re seeing. In enough detail that those in the know might be able to make the same conclusions as a sighted person, but without providing details that aren’t self-evident from the original source. So like, if it was a picture of a known character, it might say that, but if it just vaguely looks like an amalgamation of a couple of fictional characters, you’d be unlikely to see that specified, especially if they’re relatively obscure and less likely to be familiar to most of the audience.
Then that part of the audience won’t get the post, which is fine. This is not a vision/ability issue.
totally fair, you’re free to be as detailed with your own alt text as you like, i just dont see the value in playing editor for someone who already went above and beyond.
It’s because I value accessibility and I’m hoping it can be done better in the future. A mediocre transcription is certainly much better than none at all, but why not strive to do it better?
why not lead with a better suggestion instead of criticism?
They did, though. You even replied to their comment that included better suggestions.