Alt text leaderboard for Mastodon instances (mastodon.social)
from Masimatutu@lemm.ee to fediverse@lemmy.ml on 28 Oct 2023 07:57
https://lemm.ee/post/13016005

They’re doing really well! Do you think Lemmy should also implement alt text?

#fediverse

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jeena@jemmy.jeena.net on 28 Oct 2023 08:20 next collapse

There already is alt text in the markdon in the body, but yeah it would be good to have it for the header picture too.

Although I’m hoping for AI to be able to do that automatically.

kreynen@kbin.melroy.org on 28 Oct 2023 13:30 collapse

Writing good alt text is more than just identifying the objects in an image. It requires some understanding of the context around why the image is being included. Harvard provides some great advice for humans to do this well at https://accessibility.huit.harvard.edu/describe-content-images.

Unless Elon puts Tesla's FSD team on this problem, it will be many years before AI can do this well. With the FSD team on it, it would only take a decade.

Spacebar@lemmy.world on 28 Oct 2023 12:20 next collapse

That’s implying that the Lemmy devs are focused on new features.

I haven’t ever seen any user requested feature implemented.

wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 28 Oct 2023 12:37 collapse

Not if it’s policed as harshly as I hear that it is on Mastodon.

Masimatutu@lemm.ee on 28 Oct 2023 12:41 collapse

It is true that a lot of people don’t boost posts unless they have alt text, but if they wouldn’t do that, people wouldn’t bother to write alt text and it wouldn’t make much of a difference for the visually impaired.