#like i've never opened the tumblr app w voiceover on before today bc scrolling is a whole thing + half my dash is undescribed images anyway

[dnp-described]

thanks for making this blog!

a question, since i've seen conflicting info: does tumblr's native alt text feature work with your screenreader? is it better to use the native feature or add alt text after?

I've only ever used the built in screenreader on my iphone, but it does read out tumblr alt text in the app and in a mobile browser. a screenreader definitely should read out the alt text for images, that's like, the main point of alt text, and it's not exactly hard to implement alt text properly, it's just an html tag (granted I'm not sure how it works in mobile apps). It may be that people have had problems in the past or on other platforms (the type of screenreader shouldn't really matter, I don't think, unless all alt text was broken on that screenreader, but software can be weird) so if anyone has had problems or is currently having them please feel free to correct me! I really am not very good at using a screenreader lol. There are so many hand gestures and I usually use it when my light sensitivity is really bad and I'm generally feeling like shit so it's pretty rare for me to be like, browsing using a screenreader, usually it's more of an "opening some apps to switch what I'm listening to" situation.

Whether alt text or an image ID in normal text after the image is better is something different people disagree on a lot, if you want to be extra accessible the best option is to have both. Personally I put mine in just the alt text because it's less to scroll past/listen to twice/skip if it's on a screenreader (which I know is kind of a dumb reason) but really either one is a solid option and a lot better than nothing.

edit because i forgot: if you're putting the image description below a cut or something it's definitely better to include alt text so ppl don't have to navigate away to get the context and also, if anything ever happens to your blog or you delete the post, the image description is then lost