do you use/need a screen reader?

boosts appreciated. i’m trying to see how much the alt text stuff really helps.

@FawnOverFun it is also useful for people with bad internet

@ctrl mmh? how’s that?

@FawnOverFun well, if your internet connection is shit, it allows you to have an idea of what the image or video is

@ctrl ohhh- yeah. i guess.

mmh- mine is pretty bad though (9mbps up, 40 down), and it hasn’t helped me yet… how bad would your internet have to be for that to help?

@FawnOverFun well it’s mostly when i use mobile connection, with stuff like videos or large files, it struggles to load

(especially when im like in the subway underground)

@ctrl mmhm,,,

@FawnOverFun No but sometimes it helps

@FawnOverFun not only for screen readers, but people with all kinds of disabilities. And if someone has bad internet the field will load automatically because its only text so they can have an idea of what they're gonna be potentially waiting for.

@ctrl @FawnOverFun in meow experience the internet doesn't even have to be bad for fedi pics to occasionyally struggle loading or fail to do so

@mewmew @FawnOverFun yes exactly

@FawnOverFun please don’t remove alt text or forget to add it to images, it’s very important even if it seems like no one uses it!

@Cinnamon i wasn’t going to =w=

@FawnOverFun no, but I try to add alt text to all my images for those who do

@FawnOverFun nope, but i do have a shit internet connection at times, having context about the image in a post helps in those cases, so it is still useful

@FawnOverFun @ctrl i get 1mb both ways all too often

@FawnOverFun is 40 mbps down considered bad?? i only get ~20 down, and sometimes stuff randomly just takes longer to load, so alt text has helped save me waiting for some stuff to load before, yep

@FawnOverFun there is also sometimes some extra information in the alt text that i didn't notice in the picture, which is also useful

@FawnOverFun @ctrl "pretty bad (40 down)" you think that's bad..? i wish i could get 4 down...

@FawnOverFun i understand its more the curbcut effect going on here but i have gotten some use out of alt text, used it to decipher jokes i didnt understand, or figure out what an image thats not loading was about (common occurence)

@ctrl @FawnOverFun
It's not just your connection that matters, either. Because the Fediverse is a bunch of different servers across the world run by a bunch of different people, there are plenty of times when an image may not be loaded immediately, or even for awhile.

Alt text is more than just an accessibility thing!

@FawnOverFun sometimes I like to browse the fediverse at work while no one is looking by SSHing into a Linux server and launching a terminal UI that doesn't have any support for images (well it does but you have to copy and paste into a web browser hoping it's not locked behind a firewall) so the alt text helps a lot figuring out whether it's worth it

@FawnOverFun I rarely use a screen reader (heck, might be hard of hearing) but alt text is still pretty cool because sometimes you miss something important in the image while scrolling.
And some internet connections are slow or metered so ability to turn off images is pretty nice too.

@FawnOverFun when my eyes get dilated screen readers are helpful

@FawnOverFun @ctrl before we upgraded we sometimes got 1mbps down to the router. on devices it was more like 100kbps or worse