I'm gonna do a quick thread about alt-text. I'm not an expert on this! I 1) am your average well-intentioned person who wants posts to be accessible, 2) am grumpy about how non-intuitive the processs for adding alt-text often is depending on the platform, and...
3) just figured out some of this in the last week. Have you been in the same state of grump? Allow me to help.

Twitter has probably the most obvious system. When you're creating a post, just tap the little ALT button at the bottom of your pic and fill out the line provided.
3) just figured out some of this in the last week. Have you been in the same state of grump? Allow me to help. Twitter has probably the most obvious system. When you're creating a post, just tap the little ALT button at the bottom of your pic and fill out the line provided.
3) just figured out some of this in the last week. Have you been in the same state of grump? Allow me to help. Twitter has probably the most obvious system. When you're creating a post, just tap the little ALT button at the bottom of your pic and fill out the line provided.
Ok, you know this. Check.
Now let's do Facebook. It's the worst of them, this will take a few tweets!
So, first thing to do is post a pic with no alt-text. Why? No idea. I haven't found way to add it before posting - only after. Neither "edit" (on pic) or "add" (on post) help.
Once your pic is posted, you have two ways of editing. You can edit the *post* by tapping the three horizontal dots at the top right for options - but this doesn't give you an alt-text option. SO not intuitive!
What you gotta do is tap the *picture* and then tap its three vertical dots in the top right corner. That brings up a set of picture-specific options - and at the very bottom, you can see "Edit alt text." Hit that!
What you gotta do is tap the *picture* and then tap its three vertical dots in the top right corner. That brings up a set of picture-specific options - and at the very bottom, you can see "Edit alt text." Hit that!
What you gotta do is tap the *picture* and then tap its three vertical dots in the top right corner. That brings up a set of picture-specific options - and at the very bottom, you can see "Edit alt text." Hit that!
It will give you this lovely screen where you decide if you like the automatically generated alt text ("image may contain") or wanna add your own on the line right above the blue "save" button. Type, save, and trust that it worked. Or go through the same process again to check.
Cool? Cool. Now Instagram. I fucking hate Instagram, but its alt-text process is not too bad. Not as easy as Twitter but not as convoluted as FB.
So, you're creating a new post. You pick your pic, right arrow, play with filters, right arrow. Then...
Cool? Cool. Now Instagram. I fucking hate Instagram, but its alt-text process is not too bad. Not as easy as Twitter but not as convoluted as FB.So, you're creating a new post. You pick your pic, right arrow, play with filters, right arrow. Then...
Cool? Cool. Now Instagram. I fucking hate Instagram, but its alt-text process is not too bad. Not as easy as Twitter but not as convoluted as FB.So, you're creating a new post. You pick your pic, right arrow, play with filters, right arrow. Then...
Here's where you add your caption and normally then hit your check mark to post. But see that "advanced settings" thing all faint at the bottom? Hit that before posting instead. Scroll down to "accessibility" and hit "write alt text."
Here's where you add your caption and normally then hit your check mark to post. But see that "advanced settings" thing all faint at the bottom? Hit that before posting instead. Scroll down to "accessibility" and hit "write alt text."
Here's where you add your caption and normally then hit your check mark to post. But see that "advanced settings" thing all faint at the bottom? Hit that before posting instead. Scroll down to "accessibility" and hit "write alt text."
This is where you type it in. Hit your check mark. Then go finish your captioning and hit post.
If you forget, or want to go check or edit after posting, hit the three vertical dots in the top right corner of your post. It brings up options including "edit." Hit that. Then tap "edit alt text" when it appears at the bottom right.
If you forget, or want to go check or edit after posting, hit the three vertical dots in the top right corner of your post. It brings up options including "edit." Hit that. Then tap "edit alt text" when it appears at the bottom right.
If you forget, or want to go check or edit after posting, hit the three vertical dots in the top right corner of your post. It brings up options including "edit." Hit that. Then tap "edit alt text" when it appears at the bottom right.
If you forget, or want to go check or edit after posting, hit the three vertical dots in the top right corner of your post. It brings up options including "edit." Hit that. Then tap "edit alt text" when it appears at the bottom right.
Here's where it'll bring you. Edit, then check mark and yer done.
To sum up: Twitter doesn't let you edit at all. FB creates automatic alt text, and only lets you add your own alt text when you're editing a pic (not a post) - not when you're creating a new post. Insta lets you do your own alt-text right away in a new post.
Neither FB nor Instagram make it obvious where to look, you gotta poke around. I have poked. Hope it's useful. Many thanks to @bibliobutch who showed me the wacky FB process and inspired me to go see about Insta too.
One important note! Once you use alt text, you can see it if you go back into your own post to edit it - but nobody else can see it unless they're using a reader. That means, for example, your seeing friends or FB group moderators can't tell if you've made your post accessible.
I don't know if there’s an advantage to using alt-text features that makes it better than posting text everyone can read. I defer to others' expertise and lived experience here. My point is just that if you use it, you may *appear* to have forgotten to post a text description.
If anyone wants to add to this thread with lived experience perspectives on the pros and cons of these methods, or how-tos about alt-text features on other platforms, please do! I'm only on these ones and even this is too many for my taste.
All done! Share if you wanna! 🤓
Coming back to add a couple things I've learned from the comments, with many thanks to all those who've chimed in! Just a sec, gonna link a few tweets...
FB seems to have a better alt-text feature on iOS right now than on Android: https://twitter.com/sarahemm/status/1349317137131855872?s=19
For some folks, having both alt-text and the same descriptive text in the body of a post can be useful (easier to do on platforms with no length limit): https://twitter.com/BlondeHistorian/status/1349304147275882498?s=19
More on that: https://twitter.com/blurrychic/status/1349394183786688512?s=19
All phones come with built-in screen readers if you wanna check out how they work?! Is this not awesome? I had no idea. https://twitter.com/mmeller/status/1349335435798044672?s=19
And here's a link to more education, which I will totally be going to learn from asap. 💗🤓 https://twitter.com/veron4ica/status/1349173549181726720?s=19
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