General question regarding alt-text descriptions:
Part of my resolutions for this year is to be more actively working to make my posts as inclusive as possible. I consistently slack on including alt-text descriptions, and I want to be making a consistent effort to fix that. I've done my own sort of separate research, but as always, many things come down to individual preference. Which leads me to ask my audience: How descriptive do you want the alt-text to be?
For screen shots of websites/text, in the alt text I just post the what the text says that's been screenshot and where it is from, as that's the relevant information. This is more about photos, and specifically the types of photos I tend to use. If I am posting a screenshot of a show/movie, would you prefer I stick the information that's relevant to my point, and keep the description minimal, or be more descriptive, even if that's not really necessary to the discussion?
And I will provide some examples, as I think that's the most helpful. I'm goin to use the same picture, and would be using it in this context to talk about the use of color with-in the series.
Most-relevant info, minimal other information:
Now more information, but not all of it relevant.
Both are helpful, but are the additional details truly needed, or are they just kind of nice to have, would they sort of muddy the point if you were reading through the post? I don't use a screen reader, but my assumption would be that they would read the alt text at whatever point the picture shows up in the post, and so I do want the alt text to be informative, but I also don't want it to be so jarring that it kills the flow of my post overall either. I want it to give the necessary information, so that people will have the needed context without basically info-dumping. And I would assume that someone reading my posts would have the basic needed information, i.e. know who the characters are, be aware of which actor is portraying them, have a general idea of what they look like.
In the case of me discussing something like a photoshoot, or costuming, I would be more specific, both in the post itself, but also in the alt-text, because that would be relevant information at that point.
Anyway, please give me your feedback, especially if you regularly rely on the alt-text to engage with posts here or other social media sites. If you have resources you think would be helpful to me, I'm happy to check those things out.
