what's up cuz! you've mentioned before that sometimes you use a screen reader for Tumblr posts, yeah? i wanna make sure my content is as accessible as possible, so i was wondering if you had any feedback on how to better format Tumblr posts - especially fics - for those who use screen readers. like, is there any kind of formatting the reader struggles with a lot, like italics or bolding or strike-throughs or colored text? does it handle emojis (❤️) or emoticons (<3) better? and probably anything else you think would make things easier for the screen reader and the people who use them?
I remember giving input when someone asked for suggestions a while back but I am not a screen reader (reads web pages aloud) user myself, though I do use the reader mode on browsers to get a plain text for easier reading when a fic is in distracting font or unusual colors.
Considering accessibility is so important and a few of the things I picked up from reading conversations on here and Twitter include the emoji over emoticons because the first gets read by the name "red heart" and the second would be read "less than three". The automated reading also will plow through things one at a time so when people use multiple of the same thing it is going to say each one individually which can be particularly frustrating when it is detailed like "smiling face with open mouth and smiling eyes" or "raised hands skin tone three". Three in a row for emphasis will be read out three times.
A lot of symbols used as a page break are also a problem when read aloud:
"asterisk tilde asterisk tilde asterisk tilde asterisk tilde asterisk"
And more of a Twitter issue, people grabbing aesthetically pleasing symbols or letters from other alphabets to spell something like their handle. A triangle might look like an "A" but the screen reader will name it for what it actually is, meaning your friend Alex is perpetually "triangle lex" in the audio version.
Edited to add in with permission from user @the-smol-machine
on the topic of 'aesthetically pleasing' stuff from other alphabets, some screen readers won't even try to read that stuff. some can't. depending on what symbols you're using. like artificially changing the font with fancy characters has made some posts unreadable for my screen reader before. as in it just skips the content altogether. zalgo text is also annoying for screen readers. or for people who have trouble with print to begin with from my understanding lol.
End edit.
Pictures don't always load for me, so when a fic title, author, and pairing is in the image only that is annoying. Coming up with ALT descriptions for images is a huge deal, even for things like images used as page break lines. I think a lot of us are willing to do these things if asked, or when we know we have a visually impaired follower, but it is good practice to do these things whenever creating original content to benefit everybody. Also, accessibility features come with most technology so it is probably a good exercise for any of us to turn them on and experience our own posts firsthand to see what that is like for users that rely on that assistance.
I am happy to learn more from anyone or be corrected on this topic that doesn't get enough exposure.
