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+---
+schema_type: DigitalDocument
+title:       Detailed Image Descriptions Aren't Always Helpful
+date:        2022-05-05
+
+references: 
+  - label: Original Post
+    url:   https://mk.vulpes.one/notes/8zwxp9lywc
+---
+
+::: alert
+I noticed that quite a few people write very extensive image descriptions.
+Mastodon in particular implies that this is the correct way since the character limit for them is [three times as high as the limit for the actual post content](https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/11819).
+However, there are common situations where these image descriptions are in fact not helpful.
+:::
+
+Imagine you're using an online shop.
+What you'll typically see is a list of products where each list item has a small preview image, a product name and some other metadata.\
+Now imagine that the shop displays a long textual description for each product instead.
+This is what the timeline appears like to screen reader users if long image descriptions are used.
+And unlike people seeing the text, they don't have the luxury of skimming to grasp vital information quickly -- they can only wait for the screen reader to read all of it or until they decide to skip the rest.
+
+Detailed descriptions are only helpful when the user has decided the content is interesting to them.
+Currently, most fedi frontends put them in the attachment's `alt` attribute, which is fine if the user is currently viewing a single post instead of the timeline.
+But on the timeline, it's much more important to have quick summaries instead.\
+In terms of the example above, it's the same when viewing a single product vs. the product list.
+You're only interested in the details if a product is interesting to you.
+
+Image description on fedi are a step up from having none at all, but they're still inadequate.
+Ideally, you could provide both a quick summary and an in-depth description, and the UI presents both in a way that's the most helpful.\
+Since this possibility doesn't exist, please consider keeping image descriptions short and putting the long description in the post body.