#how to ID

[keplercryptids]

i often refer my friends to your blog when they need help with alt text and have some questions abt it so i figured youre someone good to ask about it :")

when i look up resources on google it always tells me to keep its as breif as possible and a couple sentences max and when i look on tumblr everyone seems to guide people into writing way more wordy alt text and im just kinda confused on what to do 🫠 i often feel like my descriptions on my art are too long and would be annoying to listen to with a screen reader

something else thats been bugging me to hell and back too and ties into the what articles say vs what tumblr says is how to write alt text for images with a lot of information, if i were to post like a doodle sheet or anything else with several different drawings in one image should i describe every single one of them or just write something like "several doodles of character doing different things"?

i understand alt text and image description are two different concepts, guides on google guide me more towards alt text and guides on tumblr guide me towards image descriptions i feel like i should find a balance but i dont know where that balance would be TT

hi!

alt text and image descriptions are not necessarily distinct things: alt text = image descriptions that show up in the alt text of an image, to be automatically read aloud by screen readers. alt text is often brief, but i think the way a lot of articles talk about alt text is to appeal to a certain audience - businesses and web developers, etc - and so the stress on brevity makes sense. you don't want to bog people down in a lot of detail if you're trying to sell them stuff, etc.

IMO, describing art is different. i don't think blind and low vision folks should be universally excluded from detailed descriptions of art. that's kind of a massive bummer to think about, actually.

and that's not to say that image descriptions shouldn't be brief. it depends. i always hesitate to give hard and fast rules for descriptions, because 1. blind and low vision folks have individual preferences just like everybody else, and 2. CONTEXT is the most important thing when it comes to image descriptions. rules on what should always be included in a description sometimes fall flat because the context is what matters most.

you should strive for a certain amount of brevity while making sure you include the proper context. by that i mean, for example, sometimes the colors in a piece are there to invoke a certain mood, and so you can sum up the mood of a piece (cheerful, cold, dark, dreamy etc) without listing every color. sometimes the poses of a doodle sheet are relevant, contextually, to whatever the image/post is about, and sometimes they're not.

image descriptions are a judgment call, and there isn't (and can't be!) one universally "correct" way to write them. just do your best and focus on what is contextually important, without getting bogged down in excess irrelevant detail, and you'll probably be in a good spot.

[identifying-ladybugs-in-posts]

Harmonia axyridis, Asian lady beetle

Adalia decempunctata, 10-spotted ladybird

Also: please do not make it a mission to kill ANY type of ladybug on sight!

[antennatoheaven]

[pumpkinhrat]

[hinamie]

newest issue of first years fashion just dropped

[nenoname]

?????

[noka-exe]

Damian Wayne comes across a classic christmas carol known well among the children of gotham… pt [1/?]

[yeepof]

Local PHD student at wizard school HARRASSED!! FOR SHAME!!

[identifying-ladybugs-in-posts]

Interesting example of the original poster confusing one of the Spotless Lady Beetles (Cycloneda) with a lady beetle that just happens to be spotless (in this case a Harmonia)

[ashcremated]

✨🌙✨

[bamsara]

thinking about them as mugs

[street-of-mercy]

[inkskinned]

because sometimes there are invisible tests and invisible rules and you're just supposed to ... know the rule. someone you thought of as a friend asks you for book recommendations, so you give her a list of like 30 books, each with a brief blurb and why you like it. later, you find out she screenshotted the list and send it out to a group chat with the note: what an absolute freak can you believe this. you saw the responses: emojis where people are rolling over laughing. too much and obsessive and actually kind of creepy in the comments. you thought you'd been doing the right thing. she'd asked, right? an invisible rule: this is what happens when you get too excited.

you aren't supposed to laugh at your own jokes, so you don't, but then you're too serious. you're not supposed to be too loud, but then people say you're too quiet. you aren't supposed to get passionate about things, but then you're shy, boring. you aren't supposed to talk too much, but then people are mad when you're not good at replying.

you fold yourself into a prettier paper crane. since you never know what is "selfish" and what is "charity," you give yourself over, fully. you'd rather be empty and over-generous - you'd rather eat your own boundaries than have even one person believe that you're mean. since you don't know what the thing is that will make them hate you, you simply scrub yourself clean of any form of roughness. if you are perfect and smiling and funny, they can love you. if you are always there for them and never admit what's happening and never mention your past and never make them uncomfortable - you can make up for it. you can earn it.

don't fuck up. they're all testing you, always. they're tolerating you. whatever secret club happened, over a summer somewhere - during some activity you didn't get to attend - everyone else just... figured it out. like they got some kind of award or examination that allowed them to know how-to-be-normal. how to fit. and for the rest of your life, you've been playing catch-up. you've been trying to prove that - haha! you get it! that the joke they're telling, the people they are, the manual they got- yeah, you've totally read it.

if you can just divide yourself in two - the lovable one, and the one that is you - you can do this. you can walk the line. they can laugh and accept you. if you are always-balanced, never burdensome, a delight to have in class, champagne and glittering and never gawky or florescent or god-forbid cringe: you can get away with it.

you stare at your therapist, whom you can make jokes with, and who laughs at your jokes, because you are so fucking good at people-pleasing. you smile at her, and she asks you how you're doing, and you automatically say i'm good, thanks, how are you? while the answer swims somewhere in your little lizard brain:

how long have you been doing this now? mastering the art of your body and mind like you're piloting a puppet. has it worked? what do you mean that all you feel is... just exhausted. pick yourself up, the tightrope has no net. after all, you're cheating, somehow, but nobody seems to know you actually flunked the test. it's working!

aren't you happy yet?

[guinevereslancelot]

it's a beautiful day at the roman senate and you are a horrible goose

[puppppppppy]

this has been plaguing my mind for days