Bluesky, accessibility, and reposting
Hey there! Not sure what alt text is or why it's important? Start with my article here: Alt text 101 for Bluesky.
I know not everyone is as dedicated to accessibility as I am; I really try to inspire others to be! If you are serious about accessibility online, as we all should be, then one of the things we have to be mindful of is not sharing posts (on Bluesky or other social apps) from other users which contain images without alt text. We have to be conscientious about what we're putting into other people's feeds. We should make the effort to ensure that a person who's following us will only see content from us that's 100% accessible to everyone. Right?
If you care about accessibility, you're probably already including alt text every time you post a pic. You may have set alt text to be required in your user settings; that's fantastic! Everyone should.
I'd love to see Bluesky implement a new setting that's similar to the "require alt text" feature, which either prevents you from sharing a post that doesn't contain alt text, or at least warns you when you're about to do so.
One option that I've seen people use is, rather than simply reposting a post that lacks alt text, they'll quote-post it instead, adding their own alt text (usually by starting their own post with, "Alt text:"). I have mixed feelings about this. It's totally a valid method for people who want to do it. It takes a post that's not accessible to users with certain disabilities and makes it accessible to them. That's absolutely a good thing. However, I don't love this method because it's giving exposure to users who may know about accessibility but just don't care. They were too lazy or inconsiderate to add it, and now you're doing it for them; rewarding their bad behavior and amplifying their voice.
In the case of people like this, is it possible that seeing their own post quote-posted with alt text might inspire them to learn about why it's important, and make the effort to add it going forward? Possibly! However, I've seen a lot of bigger accounts get politely nudged about alt text, and oftentimes their reaction is either to block the person or simply ignore them. This is extremely disappointing, and frustrating. So just the fact that there's a chance I could be elevating someone like this by reposting them and adding alt text makes me not wish to do it ever.
What's more important? Making non-accessible posts accessible? Or avoiding elevating the posts of people who don't care about accessibility? Looking at it that way, I suppose it's the former. Making the world more accessible is a 100% good thing.
Personally I'd rather leave a comment on a post that lacks alt text and politely mention that alt text is important for people with disabilities; maybe share a link about why. I don't do this very often at all, because the results are usually disappointing. However, I actually have seen this work a few times, sometimes when I've done it, sometimes when I've seen others do it.
Of course, tons of users still don't know about alt text and accessibility or why they're important, and that's absolutely forgivable! I remind people of this all the time. We can't assume that people know; it's better to give them the benefit of the doubt. We have to just continue to try to spread the word on alt text and accessibility and hope people catch on. I'm seeing progress all the time!
– Manning
Questions/comments? Feel free to contact me at manning@manningkrull.com. I update these articles pretty frequently — best practices evolve over time as the world of digital quickly changes, and I always welcome insights from others.