Hi, sorry to bother but, what is the purpose of IDing images? I keep seeing it around and it’s made me curious.
Hi! you're not bothering at all, I'm actually very glad you're asking!
Image descriptions (and other descriptions like videos) are very important for many reasons: it makes them accessible for people who use screen readers because they can't see or is hard to see, people with learning disabilities, people with slow internet connections, and more. Imagine using your computer or your phone with your eyes closed, it's possible but it's hard and you wouldn't be able to know what's on images if they aren't described.
This paragraph is kind of technical but screen readers can't describe what's on an image, even if the text on them is very clear, they only read "photo" or "image" because that's what the code says. On Tumblr is hard to add image descriptions directly on the code when on mobile and even if it was possible many people don't add them (here's a post about how to add ALT text on tumblr posts). But people who can see but the image doesn't load or it's blurry or something don't use screen readers and if something was described on the code they wouldn't be able to read it on the phone anyway.
Therefore the importance of image descriptions. They make the internet more accessible. Here and here are very good posts on how to start making them if you want to and you can always send me an ask, is not problem at all!
