Why YSK: If you want to make Lemmy a more accessible place for all, you need to know how to add labels (aka: “alt text”) to embedded images

As many of you are already aware, you can embed images in comments using the following markdown: ![](https://example.com/image.jpg).

That works, but the image will be left unlabeled which leaves screenreader users out of the conversation. This may seem like a theoretical problem, but it’s not – Lemmy already has an active blind community: https://rblind.com/

So, here’s what you can do to add labels when embedding images:

![Earth viewed from the Moon](https://example.com/image.jpg)

That’s it! Any text within the [] becomes “alt text”, which is what screenreaders use for describing images. It’s a small thing, but it makes a world of difference.

Remember: Reddit took something from many of us here. For some, it was a mobile app. For others, it was the ability to operate their own communities. Comment with solidarity; use alt-text.

  • Speckle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    1 year ago

    This is really interesting and good to know, thank you for sharing. I’m going to try and remember this for all my images going forward.

    For posts that are image based does the OP need to describe them or is that covered somehow already by screen readers?

    • chaorace@lemmy.sdf.orgOPEnglish
      131·
      1 year ago

      Excellent question. For image-based posts, there is currently no mechanism to directly embed alt-text. This is likely to change in the future, however, so subscribe to lemmy#1086 for updates.

      For now, the general advice is to use the post body to describe the linked image (on Lemmy, all posts are allowed to have “self-post”-like text). This would work by linking the image directly as usual and also embedding the same image in the post text with alt-text included there.

    • ShittyKopper [they/them]@lemmy.w.on-t.workEnglish
      21·
      1 year ago

      There are no descriptions for image posts. You can however make a post that is both an image and text post at the same time, and throw the description there, until a proper way to put alt text gets implemented.