#alt4me — Public Fediverse posts

Okay so as someone who has MULTIPLE blind friends

One of the things that pisses me off so much about Fedi is how fucking PERFORMATIVE it is about accessibility

Example: they will scream into the void about how you should always add image descriptions. Which is well-intentioned. They even have bots that literally publicly shame you if you don't.

But not everyone can necessarily make an image description. That doesn't mean we shouldn't just say "don't post images." That's fucked up. I used to have issues posting descriptions when I had more brain fog problems. Sometimes I still do.

And Fedi is not consistently helpful with the alt4me hashtags. Like good fucking luck getting people to help you.

And all this on top of the fact Mastodon nor anything else supports adding captions to video, which is perhaps one of the most important accessibility features for videos.

Yet they will also say "don't use AI for image descriptions." Most of my blind friends say they'd rather have an image description done by AI than none at all. And it ain't like people are stepping up to help; I know, I've tried.

It isn't like I'm absolutely in love with AI, but I absolutely will champion accessibility every time because people I care about need it.

So my rant is: people care about accessibility up until the moment they actually have to do something, then they suddenly resort to just shaming people and yelling at them. And that's horseshit. I'd rather you just stop pretending you give a fuck.

Here's my position:

1. Add an image description if you can
2. Stop fucking shaming people for not being able to
3. Shut those fucking image description reminder bots down, that's how you literally get people to turn against you; no one wants to be nagged by a fucking bot
4. Start helping in the #alt4me hashtag if you can
5. As much as I hate AI, I acknowledge that it is useful for my blind friends in this limited instance. Do not shame people for using generated descriptions. "Blah blah the planet blah blah Capitalism" The planet is already well and truly fucked.

I cannot emphasise #4 enough, if you do not want people to use AI, don't give them a need to use it.

(And don't police blind people or tell them what tools they can or can't fucking use)

Okay so as someone who has MULTIPLE blind friends

One of the things that pisses me off so much about Fedi is how fucking PERFORMATIVE it is about accessibility

Example: they will scream into the void about how you should always add image descriptions. Which is well-intentioned. They even have bots that literally publicly shame you if you don't.

But not everyone can necessarily make an image description. That doesn't mean we shouldn't just say "don't post images." That's fucked up. I used to have issues posting descriptions when I had more brain fog problems. Sometimes I still do.

And Fedi is not consistently helpful with the alt4me hashtags. Like good fucking luck getting people to help you.

And all this on top of the fact Mastodon nor anything else supports adding captions to video, which is perhaps one of the most important accessibility features for videos.

Yet they will also say "don't use AI for image descriptions." Most of my blind friends say they'd rather have an image description done by AI than none at all. And it ain't like people are stepping up to help; I know, I've tried.

It isn't like I'm absolutely in love with AI, but I absolutely will champion accessibility every time because people I care about need it.

So my rant is: people care about accessibility up until the moment they actually have to do something, then they suddenly resort to just shaming people and yelling at them. And that's horseshit. I'd rather you just stop pretending you give a fuck.

Here's my position:

1. Add an image description if you can
2. Stop fucking shaming people for not being able to
3. Shut those fucking image description reminder bots down, that's how you literally get people to turn against you; no one wants to be nagged by a fucking bot
4. Start helping in the #alt4me hashtag if you can
5. As much as I hate AI, I acknowledge that it is useful for my blind friends in this limited instance. Do not shame people for using generated descriptions. "Blah blah the planet blah blah Capitalism" The planet is already well and truly fucked.

I cannot emphasise #4 enough, if you do not want people to use AI, don't give them a need to use it.

(And don't police blind people or tell them what tools they can or can't fucking use)

Okay so as someone who has MULTIPLE blind friends

One of the things that pisses me off so much about Fedi is how fucking PERFORMATIVE it is about accessibility

Example: they will scream into the void about how you should always add image descriptions. Which is well-intentioned. They even have bots that literally publicly shame you if you don't.

But not everyone can necessarily make an image description. That doesn't mean we shouldn't just say "don't post images." That's fucked up. I used to have issues posting descriptions when I had more brain fog problems. Sometimes I still do.

And Fedi is not consistently helpful with the alt4me hashtags. Like good fucking luck getting people to help you.

And all this on top of the fact Mastodon nor anything else supports adding captions to video, which is perhaps one of the most important accessibility features for videos.

Yet they will also say "don't use AI for image descriptions." Most of my blind friends say they'd rather have an image description done by AI than none at all. And it ain't like people are stepping up to help; I know, I've tried.

It isn't like I'm absolutely in love with AI, but I absolutely will champion accessibility every time because people I care about need it.

So my rant is: people care about accessibility up until the moment they actually have to do something, then they suddenly resort to just shaming people and yelling at them. And that's horseshit. I'd rather you just stop pretending you give a fuck.

Here's my position:

1. Add an image description if you can
2. Stop fucking shaming people for not being able to
3. Shut those fucking image description reminder bots down, that's how you literally get people to turn against you; no one wants to be nagged by a fucking bot
4. Start helping in the #alt4me hashtag if you can
5. As much as I hate AI, I acknowledge that it is useful for my blind friends in this limited instance. Do not shame people for using generated descriptions. "Blah blah the planet blah blah Capitalism" The planet is already well and truly fucked.

I cannot emphasise #4 enough, if you do not want people to use AI, don't give them a need to use it.

(And don't police blind people or tell them what tools they can or can't fucking use)

Okay so as someone who has MULTIPLE blind friends

One of the things that pisses me off so much about Fedi is how fucking PERFORMATIVE it is about accessibility

Example: they will scream into the void about how you should always add image descriptions. Which is well-intentioned. They even have bots that literally publicly shame you if you don't.

But not everyone can necessarily make an image description. That doesn't mean we shouldn't just say "don't post images." That's fucked up. I used to have issues posting descriptions when I had more brain fog problems. Sometimes I still do.

And Fedi is not consistently helpful with the alt4me hashtags. Like good fucking luck getting people to help you.

And all this on top of the fact Mastodon nor anything else supports adding captions to video, which is perhaps one of the most important accessibility features for videos.

Yet they will also say "don't use AI for image descriptions." Most of my blind friends say they'd rather have an image description done by AI than none at all. And it ain't like people are stepping up to help; I know, I've tried.

It isn't like I'm absolutely in love with AI, but I absolutely will champion accessibility every time because people I care about need it.

So my rant is: people care about accessibility up until the moment they actually have to do something, then they suddenly resort to just shaming people and yelling at them. And that's horseshit. I'd rather you just stop pretending you give a fuck.

Here's my position:

1. Add an image description if you can
2. Stop fucking shaming people for not being able to
3. Shut those fucking image description reminder bots down, that's how you literally get people to turn against you; no one wants to be nagged by a fucking bot
4. Start helping in the #alt4me hashtag if you can
5. As much as I hate AI, I acknowledge that it is useful for my blind friends in this limited instance. Do not shame people for using generated descriptions. "Blah blah the planet blah blah Capitalism" The planet is already well and truly fucked.

I cannot emphasise #4 enough, if you do not want people to use AI, don't give them a need to use it.

(And don't police blind people or tell them what tools they can or can't fucking use)