It's a really good idea to make your posts accessible:
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@FediTips I didn't know that I should also be describing the audio in alt text when sharing something.
Thank you for the helpful post.
️@FediTips Should I do that whenever I share music too? Would it be helpful? If so, is it ok to keep it short, similar to movie subtitles?
Like, I can probably go beyond that, try to be specific about genre/lyrics and how it makes me feel, but I dunno how to describe music technically at all.
Not sure if it's ok to ask these questions here. Feel free to ignore if not.
/genuineI'd be interested in already existing resources on this, if anyone knows of any.
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Thanks for the feedback.
I did originally use an Arial-like font (the same as the text but bold) and got complaints that it was hard to read as it was too similar to the font in the main text. I think they felt they were having trouble telling the paragraphs apart.
I'll try to think of how to resolve this situation.
Some ideas:
- Add some spacing to get more "air" between the letters.
- Increase font size and use "plain" instead of "bold".
- Use another colour (spot colour) but not red or green (red green blindness)Thanks for your reply
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@FediTips Should I do that whenever I share music too? Would it be helpful? If so, is it ok to keep it short, similar to movie subtitles?
Like, I can probably go beyond that, try to be specific about genre/lyrics and how it makes me feel, but I dunno how to describe music technically at all.
Not sure if it's ok to ask these questions here. Feel free to ignore if not.
/genuineI'd be interested in already existing resources on this, if anyone knows of any.
It's hard to give an exact answer, as it depends on context. Some details may be more important than others depending on why you are posting it.
There's a similar situation with describing images or video, how much detail is appropriate?
It might help to think about what you would write if you were describing the music to someone in a letter?
One thing that is maybe important is that you highlight whatever the main point is, so it doesn't get buried in irrelevant details.
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Some ideas:
- Add some spacing to get more "air" between the letters.
- Increase font size and use "plain" instead of "bold".
- Use another colour (spot colour) but not red or green (red green blindness)Thanks for your reply
Here is what it used to look like:
After a few complaints appeared over a longer period of time, I tried switching the font and the complaints stopped.
I don't know if the people complaining were abled or not, they just said it was hard to read.
I will try to come up with something that works for everyone if possible! But priority will of course be accessibility for disabled readers.
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Here is what it used to look like:
After a few complaints appeared over a longer period of time, I tried switching the font and the complaints stopped.
I don't know if the people complaining were abled or not, they just said it was hard to read.
I will try to come up with something that works for everyone if possible! But priority will of course be accessibility for disabled readers.
From the tech writer's pov: The problem lies in the equal paragraph spacing. If you would reduce the "space under" between headline and following paragraph but keep the "space above" the whole text might get a better visual structure.
Have a look at the quick&dirty example I stitched together ... -
From the tech writer's pov: The problem lies in the equal paragraph spacing. If you would reduce the "space under" between headline and following paragraph but keep the "space above" the whole text might get a better visual structure.
Have a look at the quick&dirty example I stitched together ...Thanks so much, that's a really good example! I will try this out!
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The recommendations in section
What if I’m just posting text? Do I still need to consider accessibility issues?
are for EVERYBODY'S sake, abled and disabled alike.
In text only posts, I could think of
a) the post language setting should be accurate (multilingual posting in separate chained posts, each with appropriate language setting),
b) not to many hashtags in the middle of the post (some mark every other word as hashtag), I guess at the end it's fair game.
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It's a really good idea to make your posts accessible:
- It helps blind, deaf & deafblind people read your post
- It also helps abled people read your post
- Accessible posts get more boostsHere's a complete guide with step-by-step instructions and also lots of questions answered about this topic:
️ https://fedi.tips/how-do-i-make-posts-more-accessible-to-blind-people-on-mastodon-and-the-fediverseAs well as adding descriptions to images etc, there are also lots of things you can do to make text-only posts more accessible too.
@FediTips there's nothing like getting older to make you appreciate good accessibility. Now I'm in my late forties my eyesight is not what it used to be and small or low contrast text can be tough to read. I've started to get arthritis in my hands too which makes me appreciate keyboard navigation when my hands are too stiff to use the mouse.
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It's a really good idea to make your posts accessible:
- It helps blind, deaf & deafblind people read your post
- It also helps abled people read your post
- Accessible posts get more boostsHere's a complete guide with step-by-step instructions and also lots of questions answered about this topic:
️ https://fedi.tips/how-do-i-make-posts-more-accessible-to-blind-people-on-mastodon-and-the-fediverseAs well as adding descriptions to images etc, there are also lots of things you can do to make text-only posts more accessible too.
Are there any recommendations for sites that could help an able person to judge how accessibility tools render their post? I.e. an online version of common screen readers' text-to-speech engines?
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In text only posts, I could think of
a) the post language setting should be accurate (multilingual posting in separate chained posts, each with appropriate language setting),
b) not to many hashtags in the middle of the post (some mark every other word as hashtag), I guess at the end it's fair game.
The guide has a whole section on what to do with making text-only posts accessible, this is what Vassil referring to
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@FediTips there's nothing like getting older to make you appreciate good accessibility. Now I'm in my late forties my eyesight is not what it used to be and small or low contrast text can be tough to read. I've started to get arthritis in my hands too which makes me appreciate keyboard navigation when my hands are too stiff to use the mouse.
Indeed! Everyone is in need of some form of accessibility at some point in their lives.
And even if you don't really need it, things like text descriptions and CamelCase make posts easier to understand for everyone.
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Are there any recommendations for sites that could help an able person to judge how accessibility tools render their post? I.e. an online version of common screen readers' text-to-speech engines?
Really good question! I'm not sure about that, maybe @WeirdWriter might have recommendations?
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The guide has a whole section on what to do with making text-only posts accessible, this is what Vassil referring to
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Don't apologise, I would have interpreted it the same way!
And it's interesting to read your suggestions
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Don't apologise, I would have interpreted it the same way!
And it's interesting to read your suggestions
If anything is useful it may of course be used. No attribution needed.
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If anything is useful it may of course be used. No attribution needed.
Thank you, that's really nice!
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Are there any recommendations for sites that could help an able person to judge how accessibility tools render their post? I.e. an online version of common screen readers' text-to-speech engines?
Not really for social media posts, mainly websites. The best thing you can do is do your best and listen to feedback from people, but you can use things like an online text to speech generator that will simulate how emojies will sound, as an example. I'd start with places like https://webaim.org/simulations/screenreader @SpotlightKyd @FediTips
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Not really for social media posts, mainly websites. The best thing you can do is do your best and listen to feedback from people, but you can use things like an online text to speech generator that will simulate how emojies will sound, as an example. I'd start with places like https://webaim.org/simulations/screenreader @SpotlightKyd @FediTips
Thanks Robert
