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drawesomeThis biweekly challenge reminded me of something I had been planning to do: make better/ add image descriptions to my fanart for accessibility.
I am usually using the alt text attribute but sometimes I forget or don‘t know what/how detailed I should write about the image.
When preparing transcripts and image descriptions, I ask myself what it is about this content that I think is important, and try to convey that. I ask myself ‘if I was describing this to someone in a conversation, or in chat with someone who can’t access it for some reason, what would I want to highlight? What would I want someone to take away from this?’
From So, Like, What’s The Big Deal With Transcripts and Stuff, Anyway? by S.E. Smith
And from a commment thread bysqbr over at access_fandom asking what the people relying on descriptions would like/prefer (especially on Tumblr):
I think with fanart you should think about the audience of people who do see the images. If you think there is an audience that doesn't know the fandom, then it's better to err on the side of the more useful image description. But if you think that everybody accessing the image in any useful fashion is going to have to know the fandom, then briefer descriptions probably make sense.
It's kind of like the art of captioning user pics. I've captioned the userpic above "leverage: Eliot, Hardison, Parker running from an explosion" which walks the middle line between assuming people care about the fandom (which will be likely on the posts for which I am likely to use that icon), and describing the image. If I were likely to use that icon as my general "HELP" icon, then I might caption it "people fleeing an explosion". If I were planning to use it exclusively in a Leverage community, I my caption it "OT3 credits shot".
And:
Well, sometimes my partner looks over my shoulder and is all, "LOL, he's leaning on a branch with these horribly bloodshot eyes," or "an incredibly rumpled owl." I feel that a good image description is all about flavor, not necessarily detail.
This referred to an image of a hungover owl (yes, apparently there is a Tumblr for that which does NOT use image descriptions).
What are your guidelines for image descriptions? Do you do them consistently (I don‘t)? Do you have othe resources to share?
I am usually using the alt text attribute but sometimes I forget or don‘t know what/how detailed I should write about the image.
When preparing transcripts and image descriptions, I ask myself what it is about this content that I think is important, and try to convey that. I ask myself ‘if I was describing this to someone in a conversation, or in chat with someone who can’t access it for some reason, what would I want to highlight? What would I want someone to take away from this?’
From So, Like, What’s The Big Deal With Transcripts and Stuff, Anyway? by S.E. Smith
And from a commment thread by
sqbr over at access_fandom asking what the people relying on descriptions would like/prefer (especially on Tumblr):I think with fanart you should think about the audience of people who do see the images. If you think there is an audience that doesn't know the fandom, then it's better to err on the side of the more useful image description. But if you think that everybody accessing the image in any useful fashion is going to have to know the fandom, then briefer descriptions probably make sense.
It's kind of like the art of captioning user pics. I've captioned the userpic above "leverage: Eliot, Hardison, Parker running from an explosion" which walks the middle line between assuming people care about the fandom (which will be likely on the posts for which I am likely to use that icon), and describing the image. If I were likely to use that icon as my general "HELP" icon, then I might caption it "people fleeing an explosion". If I were planning to use it exclusively in a Leverage community, I my caption it "OT3 credits shot".
And:
Well, sometimes my partner looks over my shoulder and is all, "LOL, he's leaning on a branch with these horribly bloodshot eyes," or "an incredibly rumpled owl." I feel that a good image description is all about flavor, not necessarily detail.
This referred to an image of a hungover owl (yes, apparently there is a Tumblr for that which does NOT use image descriptions).
What are your guidelines for image descriptions? Do you do them consistently (I don‘t)? Do you have othe resources to share?