Here's few words about #accessibility, specifically #CamelCase and #altText on #Mastodon. From a pragmatic as well as ethical point of view. If you are already signed up on ethical grounds, good job, let's keep at it!

Pragmatically: If you are not writing for an audience outside of people you personally know then there is a non zero chance you will have someone with difficulty seeing or with dyslexia try to read your work. Effective communicators remove barriers for their audiences.

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Especially on Mastodon there is very much a culture of equality and respect for others. By showing that you appreciate these values you are more socially acceptable here.

Camel Case, https://www.boia.org/blog/make-your-hashtags-accessible is the practice of capitalising the start of each word in a #. E.g. #CamelCase. Those familiar with the difference between susanalbumparty and SusanAlbumParty will appreciate the effort, as will people with dyslexia. People with screen readers also benefit as described in the link.

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By increasing accessibility, you also increase your audience AND the people willing to share your work.

For screen readers, I am told that having #Hashtags in every #other word is #annoying. Also it looks bad on screen. We have 500 characters try and put # at the bottom of the post.

In the next post I'll discuss alt-text.

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#AltText

What is alt-text, how do you do it, why do you do it, what needs doing?

What is it?

Alt-text is the 1500 characters you get to describe an image you post.

How do I do it?

If you're posting a tweet/screenshot of an article than I'd advise using the desktop/Web login to Mastodon. It has a fairly good auto-transcribe feature which requires only minor edits.

For memes, photos and cartoons you're going to have to do it the more difficult way but it's a good habit to get into.

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Why should I use alt-text?

Because people won't boost your images and they'll complain at you if you don't? Beyond being very rude to others, you deny yourself a wider audience by excluding people with visual difficulties.

Also people with limited reception appreciate this, and in many cases, the point of the meme may not be obvious to others.

You can clarify what _you_ think the point of the meme/cartoon is and avoid "Twit-terpretations" aka bad faith readings with alt-text.

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How do I do good alt text?

This is the hard part. I'll use some examples from D-A grade below (IMO) and I'm not expert.

Share this with people who don't understand accessibility helps them meet their goals.

Also, images and posts cost money to host. Don't forget to support your local Mastodon server, even tiny amounts help! #BuyYourRound #MastodonServer #accessibility

Edit: A reader informs me that screenreaders don't do paragraphs of alt-text just one big lump. So try and be concise!

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