hhmx.de

Velocipede Rider

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 10:37:38

Ok, yes the full alt text is present apparently. I see it when I inspect the page with dev tools but does not display in its entirety for the tooltip.

Screenshot from developer tools in Vivaldi showing that the alt text from the previous image is complete.

(Medien: 1)

Eystein

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 12:13:27

@ruari Alt texts should ideally be kept under 125 characters; because JAWS (don’t know about other screen readers) will cut it off at that point. The longdesc attribute is recommended for longer descriptions. Of course, that’s not available in the UI most (any?!) places, so I reckon pasting the whole text in a follow-up toot is sort of a solution.

FediTips has moved!

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 12:35:17

@eys @ruari

Wow, this is first time I've heard anyone mention this.

Is there some reason why JAWS does that? Seems a bit of a bad design for a screen reader, to leave out most of the text available?

125 characters is really short.

FediTips has moved!

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 12:44:12

@eys @ruari

Okay, just based on a nose around the internet, looks like JAWS does read more than 125 characters, but splits it up into 125 character chunks:

terrillthompson.com/tests/altl

The other readers tested read the whole text in one big chunk.

Velocipede Rider

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 12:46:21

@feditips Yeah I need to think about this going forward. I often have long alt text and not just because I include a full copy of written words from a screenshot. Now I am thinking about how I should order things, so that the most relevant part is near the front, so when it is too long, they'll at least get something.

@eys

FediTips has moved!

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 12:49:08

@ruari @eys

Have consulted and followed a number of blind users on here about best practice for posting, and never heard this ever mentioned.

I'm wondering if this is something that has entered web design circles a while ago and just stayed there as a rule?

I just dropped a message to a blind user who has helped me out a lot, I'll see what they have to say.

Eystein

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 13:03:13

@feditips @ruari Thank you for investigating and clearing it up for us!
I've always worked with the assumption that alt texts should be short and precise - when it was first implemented in browsers it was to describe images rather than transcribe big blocks of screenshotted text 🤷🏻‍♂️
There's also the chance that when the alt text replaces a non-loading image, the text might get cut off depending on the width & height of the image it's replacing.

FediTips has moved!

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 13:07:54

@eys @ruari

Yeah, good point! Maybe the difference in the way different tags are treated is a holdover from the days when alt texts were also used as visual placeholders for sighted people? (In the days when images loaded slowly or not at all...)

Velocipede Rider

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 13:09:11

@feditips I now eagerly await a future post on best tips when alt texting from you. 😆

@eys

Velocipede Rider

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 13:12:24

@feditips FWIW I do think a lot of sighted users do use the alt text as well. Images are sometimes deleted from caches on instances. In addition there are extentions and tools built into browsers (including Vivaldi) to prevent loading of images for various reasons. Here is my earlier post, which interestingly shows the entire alt text even though the toltip did not.

@eys

Screenshot of earlier post in the thread showing the complete alt text displayed with no cut off.

(Medien: 1)

Velocipede Rider

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 13:15:54

@feditips I also sometimes use @ihabunek's wonderful Toot TUI masto client from the terminal and appreciate the alt text greatly myself.

Here is my older post as an example

github.com/ihabunek/toot

@eys

My earlier post showing the post with alt text displayed on a terminal using Toot TUI masto client.

(Medien: 1)

Velocipede Rider

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 13:27:32

A side note @feditips since you write masto tips. Toot is really nice for automating posting from scripts. My @browserversiontracker and @vivaldiversiontracker are basically just short shell scripts powered by cURL to fetch information and Toot to post it.

With tools like these doing the heavy lifting simple info posting masto bots are pretty straightforward if you have basic command line skils.

You have probably written about these things before but I mention it nonetheless. 🤷🏼

@ihabunek

FediTips has moved!

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 13:42:48

@ruari @browserversiontracker @vivaldiversiontracker @ihabunek

I've mentioned Toot as a command line app, didn't know about the script side of things. Thanks! 🙏

Velocipede Rider

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 13:46:31

@feditips Well it just makes the posting part really simple as you can just pipe text into it from the command line. Here is a small excerpt from the shell script that posts the @vivaldiversiontracker information.

@ihabunek

  cat <<EOF | toot post -u "$PUBLISHER_USERNAME" -v public
Vivaldi Stable :vivaldi_red:
• Desktop 🖥️: $POST_DESKTOP_STABLE_VERSION
• Android 📱: $POST_ANDROID_STABLE_VERSION

Vivaldi Snapshot :vivaldi_gray:
• Desktop 🖥️: $POST_DESKTOP_SNAPSHOT_VERSION
• Android 📱: $POST_ANDROID_SNAPSHOT_VERSION
EOF
else
  printf "\nNo new builds\n\n" >&2
  exit
fi

(Medien: 1)

Velocipede Rider

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 14:27:48

@feditips My "bots" (actually just automated posting) are tiny shell scripts run as cron jobs. At set intervals they use cURL to fetch information from the web, extract key values with tools like sed and grep and then post with Toot (if those values have changed since last time).

I know it is not for everyone but the barrier for entry is fairly low if someone is at all command line savvy.

FediTips has moved!

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 14:31:21

@ruari

Do you have a post about this somewhere I could link to? 😃

Velocipede Rider

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 14:33:31

@feditips I guess I could write a short blog post about it with maybe an example script.

Velocipede Rider

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 14:37:36

@feditips I can tweak this old script that I used to use on my watch account that posted hourly updates of the time in binary as Christmas trees (lit and unlit).

Make it into something more useful and embed it in a blog post

gist.github.com/ruario/dcbb5a4

FediTips has moved!

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 14:39:23

@ruari

Hahaha, I knew you would bring unusual watches into it 😁

Even a quick blog post summarising what you've posted in this thread would do!

Velocipede Rider

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 14:40:06

@feditips I mean it was that or unicycles…right!? 😆

Velocipede Rider

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 13:27:32

A side note @feditips since you write masto tips. Toot is really nice for automating posting from scripts. My @browserversiontracker and @vivaldiversiontracker are basically just short shell scripts powered by cURL to fetch information and Toot to post it.

With tools like these doing the heavy lifting simple info posting masto bots are pretty straightforward if you have basic command line skils.

You have probably written about these things before but I mention it nonetheless. 🤷🏼

@ihabunek

FediTips has moved!

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 13:42:48

@ruari @browserversiontracker @vivaldiversiontracker @ihabunek

I've mentioned Toot as a command line app, didn't know about the script side of things. Thanks! 🙏

Velocipede Rider

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 13:15:54

@feditips I also sometimes use @ihabunek's wonderful Toot TUI masto client from the terminal and appreciate the alt text greatly myself.

Here is my older post as an example

github.com/ihabunek/toot

@eys

My earlier post showing the post with alt text displayed on a terminal using Toot TUI masto client.

(Medien: 1)

Velocipede Rider

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 13:27:32

A side note @feditips since you write masto tips. Toot is really nice for automating posting from scripts. My @browserversiontracker and @vivaldiversiontracker are basically just short shell scripts powered by cURL to fetch information and Toot to post it.

With tools like these doing the heavy lifting simple info posting masto bots are pretty straightforward if you have basic command line skils.

You have probably written about these things before but I mention it nonetheless. 🤷🏼

@ihabunek

FediTips has moved!

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 13:42:48

@ruari @browserversiontracker @vivaldiversiontracker @ihabunek

I've mentioned Toot as a command line app, didn't know about the script side of things. Thanks! 🙏

FediTips has moved!

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 13:10:39

@eys @ruari

Tried to have a look if this issue had been raised before, apparently longdesc is deprecated?

github.com/mastodon/mastodon/i

Eystein

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 13:17:11

@feditips @ruari ops, it's deprecated yes! I have to admit i've never made use of it myself. But luckily, as it says, we can use aria-describedby, which when I think about it, I've seen more used.

Eystein

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 13:14:53

@feditips @ruari Just be aware that there are still a lot of images not loading, often because of broken image URLs as a result of moving servers, or someone "cleaning up" a media library - deleting photos. Or javascript used to load, but the javascript is broken. Or a poor mobile connection. The list goes on…

The size cropping issue is dependent on how responsive the CSS is.

FediTips has moved!

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 12:35:17

@eys @ruari

Wow, this is first time I've heard anyone mention this.

Is there some reason why JAWS does that? Seems a bit of a bad design for a screen reader, to leave out most of the text available?

125 characters is really short.

FediTips has moved!

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 12:35:17

@eys @ruari

Wow, this is first time I've heard anyone mention this.

Is there some reason why JAWS does that? Seems a bit of a bad design for a screen reader, to leave out most of the text available?

FediTips has moved!

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 12:35:17

@eys @ruari

Wow, this is first time I've heard anyone mention this.

Is there some reason why JAWS does that? Seems a bit of a bad design for a screen reader, to leave out most of the text available?

125 characters is really short.

Eystein

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 12:13:27

@ruari Alt texts should ideally be kept under 125 characters; because JAWS (don’t know about other screen readers) will cut it off at that point. The longdesc attribute is recommended for longer descriptions. Of course, that’s not available in the UI most (any?!) places, so I reckon pasting the whole text in a follow-up toot is sort of a solution.

FediTips has moved!

Föderation EN Fr 01.09.2023 12:35:17

@eys @ruari

Wow, this is first time I've heard anyone mention this.

Is there some reason why JAWS does that? Seems a bit of a bad design for a screen reader, to leave out most of the text available?