Meme ID Templates

Main blog: @luckedoutmouse Here I will be posting image descriptions of meme templates, so anyone can copy and paste them and edit them to their liking! Will also reblog tips on how to make your own image descriptions! Will update once a week. [ID: An octahedron facing the screen such that four of its faces are visible. It has two closed eyes drooping downward on the top right face, coloured green. Its bottom right face is a dark sea green while its left faces are, from top to bottom, carrot orange and dark orange. It is on the same coloured background, a similar carrot orange. End ID]

[blindbeta]

opinion on a character losing one eye in a traumatic event, but not the other? is any sort of eye trauma ableist to depict, or is it fine as long as its only one eye?

I’m not sure I have the ability to answer this, personally, and so I will turn it over to those who lost one eye themselves. The key is that while losing one eye is difficult and can certainly impair your daily life, you may not be considered blind. This is because blindness is measured with your best eye with best correction.

This means that a character who loses one eye may or may not be considered blind. It depends on level of vision in their other eye. This means they could have 20/20 vision in their remaining eye. It can also mean that they have one remaining eye that is blind. For example, their remaining eye has blind spots, only color perception, or tunnel vision.

Not all people with monocular vision are blind, but some are.

The RNIB has a good section on the difference under the header ‘can I register as partially sighted / sight impaired?’

Jessica Kelgren-Fozard also shares about having one blind eye and one with 20/20 vision in this video. She personally does not identify as blind.

This is me trying explain that while I might feel uncomfortable blind character losing an eye in a traumatic accident or to someone else deliberately injuring their eye, depending on how the event and the aftermath was portrayed, I can’t really speak for people like the ones in your question.

Readers with one usable eye who aren’t blind, what do you think?

I hope you can get some good replies in the notes. I would love to help with other things, such as writing lack of depth perception, if needed. The RNIB page I referenced also has a good section on coping skills that might help.

[blindbeta]

If someone made an audio version of a comic, which would you prefer: a normal comic dub with audio descriptions added; or an audio drama that replaces all visual cues with audio cues, instead of simply describing the visuals?

I think either could work.

There are already good examples of either in the forms of audio descriptions for television and podcasts with sound design respectively.

Depending on what is happening, it may help to do a bit of both.

Also, if possible, providing the written transcript would help those who are DeafBlind, have audio processing difficulties, have visual processing difficulties, or use screen-readers for whatever reason. Since the transcript will probably need to written for recording purposes, providing it as an additional resource should be achievable.

This sounds amazing, by the way.

[blindbeta]

If someone made an audio version of a comic, which would you prefer: a normal comic dub with audio descriptions added; or an audio drama that replaces all visual cues with audio cues, instead of simply describing the visuals?

I think either could work.

There are already good examples of either in the forms of audio descriptions for television and podcasts with sound design respectively.

Depending on what is happening, it may help to do a bit of both.

Also, if possible, providing the written transcript would help those who are DeafBlind, have audio processing difficulties, have visual processing difficulties, or use screen-readers for whatever reason. Since the transcript will probably need to written for recording purposes, providing it as an additional resource should be achievable.

This sounds amazing, by the way.

[blindbeta]

hey! i have a question. i've been toying with writing a blind seer type character but i don't want to fall into the cliches. would it make sense/work out for this character to receive their "visions" through hearing them?

Hi,

I think it would certainly avoid the somewhat over-used idea of a blind person being able to see or see better in their prophecies. I think using other senses would be refreshing and add a possible element of mystery if that interests you. I also have a post on blind seers in my pinned post if you haven’t read it already.

Hope this helps! Happy writing!

[blindbeta]

Is anyone who is familiar with posting on Instagram willing to help me with posting on my account?

[blindbeta]

Would it be weird for a low vision / partially sighted character to call their SO “beautiful” as a pet name?

Certainly not weird. Blind people still care about beauty, and it comes in a many forms. Blind people certainly see partners as beautiful for a variety of reasons, whether they have vision or not. Also, pet names are a way of showing affection, love, or acknowledgment in many cultures, regardless of the name used.

[blindbeta]

Not a question but something I thought would be cool/helpful to share. There’s a podcast called “Exolore: facts based fictional worldbuilding.” The episode I’m currently on is about creating a fictional planet with no visible light and determining how life and culture would evolve there. Two of the episode’s guests are blind, and one of them is actually the first congenitally blind biomedical research scientist! The scientist is named Mahadeo Sukhai. The other blind guest owns a woodworking business (@theblindwoodsman on Instagram), and talked about using his Charles Bonnet Syndrome to design his art in a way I didn’t realize was possible

Thank you for sharing! I love seeing interesting blind folks getting input on world-building and writing exploration.

[blindbeta]

Can screen readers read strike through text?

Unfortunately as far as I have experienced it reads the text as regular text with no indication of the strike through.

[mimzy-writing-online]

hello!! I don't know if this blog is still active or not but you're the first resource I found when looking up things about writing blind characters so here i am. I have a character who's a fantasy race that naturally has a better sense of smell & hearing. This character also happens to be blind. Their blindness is not inherently why they have these advantages, but I still want to avoid coming off as cliche. Is there any way I should make this clear/anything i should alter? thx for reading !

Hi, the blog is active. If it's been a while since the last post, it's just because life hasn't given me much time to work on the blog but it has not been abandoned.

As for your question:

-Establish which race your character is early on during their introduction. You can work some world building in piece by piece and explain that they have stronger senses of hearing and smell than humans.

-In your planning/world-building you should consider how heavily that race relies on those senses for environmental awareness. Once you work out what's possible/impossible for your character to smell and hear, then you go through what you need your character to notice for the story.

Those two above should be enough to avoid cliche territory but if you have a moment where the character's ability to focus on a sense seems too special or plot-convenient, just work through whether or not it's possible for the character to identify this sound/smell and break down what the thought process was.

I have a lot of people in my life who treat my senses of sound/touch/taste/smell/etc as super human because I notice details they've never had to pay attention to before. A lot of times I respond to their awe by explaining my thought process and how I came to certain conclusions. It's mostly pattern recognition and detective work.

For example, I can smell a burger joint from two blocks away, but I have friends who won't smell it until we're walking past the door.

My friends don't need to think about the smells and what they mean because their environmental awareness begins with visual input and everything that comes after is just extra context. They'll see a sign from two blocks away, identify the logo/name/branding. If they're hungry they might focus on that sign long enough to remember the food sold there and maybe even the smells they remember. If they're not hungry, they'll move onto the next visual cue they notice.

I am getting a lot less visual info with a much shorter "warning" time, so I'll probably catch the smell of food on the wind long before I ever see a sign. For my brain, the thought process becomes: I smell food. Someone is cooking meat. Beef? There's notes of fried oil in the air. It's probably a burger place. Then I work with what I know about the area and if I remember any major restaurants.

Another example is that I used laundry room as markers for corners and apartment buildings in my neighborhood. I can connect that random rumbling sound with the smell of fresh laundry.

For most people it's just an unknown rumbling sound. For my bestie, it's a mechanical sound of a home appliance but not a refrigerator or a heating unit or something he specifically worked with in the past. For me, the process is- It's a mechanical sound but not one belonging to a car. It's also stationary and the sound is steady and repetitive, looping ever 3 seconds or less. I connect the sound with the smell of fresh laundry and I know that it's coming from a dryer. Which was actually very helpful in my old apartment building because I could tell if the washer and dryer were in use from outside the building, so I knew if it was pointless to get my laundry ready right away.

So if you have a moment that seems too super powered, just work through the thought process and adjust details until it feels right.

[blindbeta]

Hi! I'm writing a modern A.U. fanfiction of a character who is canonically partially blind (he can't see well out of either eye unless he takes medicine; even then it only temporarily improves his vision, and his vision in one eye is worse than the other). In canon, he is like this because he got poisoned, but this doesn't really work in a modern A.U. that's not fantasy, so I decided to make him partially blind due to an untreated meningitis infection he contracted as a child. He has other issues because of it but this is about his blindness. Anyways, this fanfiction includes a lot of romance. What kinds of things should I include his partner doing for him, or showing his partner learning because he's blind (for example, helping him with problems related to depth perception, etc.). I'm autistic so this makes sense in my brain but I'm sorry if this doesn't make sense to you! Basically what I'm trying to say is how can I show this character's partner caring for him and helping him regarding his blindness and having tender and intimate moments without coming off as infantilizing. Thanks so much!

Don’t worry. Your question makes sense to me.

First, I believe this previous ask will help, as it provides prompts for writing romance with a blind character, including examples of a sighted partner helping a blind one.

Partners are also afforded more permission to touch or guide than a stranger would have. For example, a sighted partner pointing out an obstacle or gently guiding a blind partner would not be a problem because trust has already been built between them. A sighted partner would also be more comfortable offering sighted guide.

This means that a good partner would know how to offer help without being infantilizing. They already know what the blind character usually needs help with and what they can do on their own.

I also feel that having the blind character do things on his own would show his autonomy. Additionally, having the blind character do things to help the sighted character would provide a nice, realistic balance, because people in relationships help each other all the time.

I also believe it helps most to show the partner helping with tasks not related to blindness, as blind people need help with anything from cheering up to reminding about appointments. Not everything we need help with has to do with blindness. Sometimes showing that is all you need.

[blindbeta]

In my current story, many people are visually impaired in poor areas due to environmental factors (this is a fantasy novel). However, I have one character who doesn't live in one of these areas and has had degrading vision since birth (unsure of the exact type at the moment, I'm still researching). Would this fall into the category of her being a token blind character? She's the only character with I guess "natural" blindness since the other visually impaired characters are a result of their environment. Sorry if stuff isn't worded right, my thoughts tend to be a bit scrambled at times lol.

I don’t believe this would be a token blind character. There are plenty of other blind characters regardless of what caused their blindness. It would help to have varying levels of blindness and various reactions to blindness.

It is true environmental factors and poverty can also lead to disability, and this includes lack of access to treatment. For example, cataracts are a treatable cause of blindness, but only for those who can afford treatment and have access to appropriate medical care. Therefore, poverty, rural living, and lack of transportation can all be factors preventing care.

This is also true for progressive diseases or conditions, causing otherwise stable visual impairments to worsen.

By environmental factors, it is possible you also meant things like poor lighting or chemical/magical factors in addition to poverty.

All of the factors I mentioned are—or could be, for your story—a result of systemic failures or outright malicious behavior from those in power. I would avoid treating visual impairment as a punishment or a threat made by, for example, a powerful mage who cursed the land.

While I don’t feel this would count as tokenism, I think it is important to show that blindness doesn’t arise only through environmental factors, but instead can be genetic or a result of other conditions. It may have nothing to do with the environment.

I believe it would be beneficial to portray varying types of blindness, in varying stages, and with various reactions to this development. Perhaps a character was simply born blind, or perhaps another went blind due to a genetic condition. Perhaps many people lose vision due to lack of access to clean water and medical care. Or that, but with magical reasons common to fantasy stories. Perhaps some characters have progressive vision loss on top of the typical impairment common to this environment. Environmental factors will not impact everyone the same way, just as they don’t in real life.

While having a character with ‘natural’ blindness, as you put it, helps, I think it will also be beneficial to avoid portraying the blindness due to environmental factors as excessively sad or tragic. You can also avoid portraying this character’s blindness as different, better, or strange compared to the areas you are writing about.

Personally, I think it would help to have other blind or otherwise disabled people outside of those areas, as the concern seems to be less about tokenism and more about blindness overall.

[blindbeta]

Are blind people less likely to have an aquarium pet? Like fish? There are many reasons to have such a pet, such as a sense of responsibility and routine, or companionship.

However, aquarium pets are normally to be looked at, so I wonder if blind people are less likely to get them? There are limited ways to interact with aquarium pets beyond just looking, but most blind people have a little vision so I wonder if seeing movement and shapes is enough, or if a pet you can't interact with is uninteresting?

(Context: my writing project involves a vampire maybe getting some pet leeches for bloodsucking solidarity. The vampire was once a dead body, so has thick corneas similar to Fuch's Dystrophy and is therefore blind - does this mean it's unlikely he'll get an aquarium pet?) Also thanks for running this blog! Very helpful advice!

Blind People And Aquarium Pets

I find the idea of a vampire character having leech pets to be kind of cute.

According to my research, Fuch’s Dystrophy involves blurred and distorted vision that worsens over time. I also imagine that if the vampire lives longer than humans, the condition would have the opportunity to worsen even more unless he is unchanging or physically frozen in time. There is a chance the character may have some vision, as you know many blind people do. This vision could be used to enjoy an aquarium pet.

Most blind folks I know prefer pets they can feel or hold close to them, although this might actually be a preference for furry / fuzzy things. I see no reason why a blind person or character couldn’t have an aquarium pet even if they couldn’t see at all. For your purposes, such as solidarity with a similar creature, it sounds fine.

In addition to most blind people having some vision, people still get pets for a variety of reasons. Maybe some people want pets that don’t require a lot of attention. Maybe they happen to have a special interest in fish, for example, and enjoy having a pet fish despite not being able to see it well or at all. Or perhaps they can see color and enjoy brightly colored fish. Wanting brightly colored pets might limit them to fish or birds. Maybe their apartment only allows aquarium pets. The possibilities are endless. While some blind people may find the idea boring, I’m sure there are some people who would enjoy an aquarium pet for different reasons. And while my first instinct is to say that it probably wouldn’t be as likely a choice given how blind folks interact with touch, it isn’t impossible either, especially because people are all different and need different levels of pet interaction. If you are unsure about it, there is no harm in also including other blind characters with pets in the story.

I think as long as you consider accessibility the way you are now, it’s fine. Showing the reasons he chose an aquarium pet will help make it more clear, as well as display agency and his own unique needs. Also, a character making the choice to adopt an aquarium pet is very different from someone else choosing a pet that may be inaccessible to them.

I would love to hear from other blind folks. What are your thoughts on aquarium pets?

[pantlesshero]

genuine question - when a posts gifs/images already have an ALT attached to them, helping those with screen reader access info about them, does it still make sense to do an ID tag? Wouldn't that just double up the same info for them when they scroll their dash?

I saw on some accessibility blogs that it's best to do both but I don't always describe them extra in that case, just when I have the time. I'm not an expert on that tho I just follow what people who use screen readers say on here!

@askablindperson @blindbeta are good sources!

[blindbeta]

Alt-Text and Image Descriptions - Do You Need Both? Possibly, Yes. But You Need At Least One.

I personally do both based on input and information collected from others over the years, including my own preferences. @mimzy-writing-online is an excellent resource for image descriptions as is @accessibleaesthetics.

The pros of image descriptions include:

-visibility, which increases awareness of accessibility needs when people see them and are able to understand what they’re used for,

-increased word count, and

-visibility for those without screen-readers who would otherwise need descriptions such as those with disorders that make it hard to process images, increasing accessibility for some DeafBlind people, and people with vision impairments who don’t use screen-readers.

Pros of ALT-text depends on what website it is on.

-Some visibility. Some ALT-text is still visible to everyone, such as when ALT-text includes a marker that ALT-text is present for the image. However, in some cases, ALT-text still requires a screen-reader and provides no indication of its presence. This means the opportunity to make accessibility needs visible to the general public could be lost.

-Having ALT-text provides information for screen-readers so they say something other than ‘image’. If there are many images in a row, such as for a comic, it can be helpful to label each image as ‘comic page 1’, for example.

Cons of ALT-text, depending on the website:

-No or varying visibility to those without screen-readers.

-Less accessibility for those who have difficulty processing images and don’t use screen-readers.

-Less chance of increasing public awareness of the necessity of descriptions and the presence of disabled people, especially the blind community, online.

-Some word count limitation.

Cons of image descriptions:

-Some places include a word count limit that can make writing image descriptions challenging. In this case, it is probably better to include a short description rather than no description.

In general, I suggest doing both a detailed image description and a smaller ALT-text description stating what the image is- a photo, art, a comic page, etc. At the very least, include one of them.

[pantlesshero]

genuine question - when a posts gifs/images already have an ALT attached to them, helping those with screen reader access info about them, does it still make sense to do an ID tag? Wouldn't that just double up the same info for them when they scroll their dash?

I saw on some accessibility blogs that it's best to do both but I don't always describe them extra in that case, just when I have the time. I'm not an expert on that tho I just follow what people who use screen readers say on here!

@askablindperson @blindbeta are good sources!

[blindbeta]

Alt-Text and Image Descriptions - Do You Need Both? Possibly, Yes. But You Need At Least One.

I personally do both based on input and information collected from others over the years, including my own preferences. @mimzy-writing-online is an excellent resource for image descriptions as is @accessibleaesthetics.

The pros of image descriptions include:

-visibility, which increases awareness of accessibility needs when people see them and are able to understand what they’re used for,

-increased word count, and

-visibility for those without screen-readers who would otherwise need descriptions such as those with disorders that make it hard to process images, increasing accessibility for some DeafBlind people, and people with vision impairments who don’t use screen-readers.

Pros of ALT-text depends on what website it is on.

-Some visibility. Some ALT-text is still visible to everyone, such as when ALT-text includes a marker that ALT-text is present for the image. However, in some cases, ALT-text still requires a screen-reader and provides no indication of its presence. This means the opportunity to make accessibility needs visible to the general public could be lost.

-Having ALT-text provides information for screen-readers so they say something other than ‘image’. If there are many images in a row, such as for a comic, it can be helpful to label each image as ‘comic page 1’, for example.

Cons of ALT-text, depending on the website:

-No or varying visibility to those without screen-readers.

-Less accessibility for those who have difficulty processing images and don’t use screen-readers.

-Less chance of increasing public awareness of the necessity of descriptions and the presence of disabled people, especially the blind community, online.

-Some word count limitation.

Cons of image descriptions:

-Some places include a word count limit that can make writing image descriptions challenging. In this case, it is probably better to include a short description rather than no description.

In general, I suggest doing both a detailed image description and a smaller ALT-text description stating what the image is- a photo, art, a comic page, etc. At the very least, include one of them.

[blindbeta]

Hey so I'm writing a blind character who's typing on a Braillewriter and reading what he's typed. When Blind people get emotional reading something, would ya'll by any chance slow down the speed of your finger reading braille and pause to collect yourself?

Like the name he's typed is the name of his dead sister, and it hurts him sometimes to even hear it. So if you knew it was coming (since you wrote it), would you stop your finger right before the name?

Sighted people while reading can't help but read the whole thing, so could linear tactile reading could be different?

[Seeking feedback from consistent Braille users!]

Hi, I’m not sure of this one myself and so this question is harder to answer. I would like to give a few thoughts and then direct you to the notes of this post in case any helpful Braille users would like to share thoughts.

If he knows the name is coming and is emotional about it, he can pause before getting to it. He could also simply collect himself after reading it. While tactile reading is different from reading print in that you can pause reading in the middle of a word, this may also be more consistent with less experienced Braille users, since Grade 1 or uncontracted Braille is longer, as it spells out each word without shorthand. Grade 2, or contracted Braille, uses shorthand. Here is a helpful guide. And here is a video of a blind person writing the name Heather in Grade 1 Braille, which is longer, and Grade 2 Braille, which is shorter. The way things are written may also depend on the language he reads with, as different languages will have different spellings and therefore different contractions or shorthand.

For example, a name written in contracted Braille might take up less space and be quicker to read, unless he is recently learning contracted Braille. So while it is possible to pause in the middle of a word, it may depend on the word, how it is written, and leve of experience.

Does anyone have any additional thoughts from the anon? What seems like a realistic situation to you?

[blindbeta]

A trope I see used is "sighted people explaining colors to blind people", like "blue is like cold water", "red is like fire", etc. Is that a thing that actually happens? And how do actual blind people feel about it?

Explaining Colors to Blind People

Personally, I don’t believe it is necessary. Blind people do like to know about color, but we don’t really need people explaining that pink is like flower petals, as romanticized as this idea is. Describing a sweater using a color and shade would suit our needs most of the time.

To explain, most blind people can actually see something. Blindness is a spectrum. A lot of us can see colors depending on what our vision is like. This trope comes up because most media portrays only one blind character who is almost always totally blind. While totally blind representation is a wonderful thing, this can lead to some confusion among those who have never met a blind person.

Additionally, some people go totally blind later in life and retain memory of colors.

Explaining colors in media is mostly done for the totally blind characters. However, this is where the description of unnecessary also applies!

To explain, most blind people already associate colors with concepts, moods, textures, or sounds by childhood. Since a lot of media focuses on children, teen, and adult characters, explaining colors wouldn’t be necessary. It may also be unwelcome if someone prefers not to listen to other’s perceptions of color. On the other hand, some blind people may be interested in how others perceive color even if they aren’t changing their own ideas.

Anyway, unless a child is very young and interested in colors, I don’t find explaining colors to blind characters to be a very realistic or helpful gesture.

Instead, it would be helpful to describe more scenery, images, text, or other visual things to blind characters and blind people in real life. Scenes in media often bypass providing descriptions by having a character share a wistful, “I wish you could see it.” It would be a nicer gesture to have characters casually describe things instead.

Most blind people don’t need or welcome descriptions of what colors are. They may, however, like actual descriptions of patterns in clothing items, color and style in art, or audio descriptions for visual media.

I believe people get too caught up in the idea of blind people not being able to see colors that they forget there are pretty of other things blind people can’t see (or can’t see well enough) that they aren’t as willing to put effort into describing.

If anyone else would like to share their experiences with this or their personal opinions, please share in the notes or reblogs!

[blindbeta]

Screen-Readers and Pronunciation

After writing more posts about accessibility, I notice that screen-readers not only pronounce things differently based on the type of reader, but also sometimes according to what website I am on. Tumblr, WordPress, and other sites have small differences. Then, of course, there are variations depending on the voice you choose. These are probably more expected given people are used to differences in pronunciation and vocabulary based on accent and region.