My eyes are still pretty good (with reading glasses) but my brain? Not so much!

So often I need to read the image description to understand what I'm looking at and/or why it's relevant.

It's an added bonus when the alt text is written very well. Some folks are able to craft wonderful little stories about the images of people, animals or places they've posted. ❤️

PS. Adding a reminder that folks can add alt text to GIFs and videos, not just static images!

I struggle with discerning things at low-contrast, or just knowing wtf I'm supposed to be looking at.

The text is important. The image is optional, but usually doesn't provide anything that the text didn't already do. It usually feels like a waste of bandwidth more than anything else.

I show the alt-text first and click through to the images sometimes.

At this point, 245 people have taken this survey and only 2% say, "I'm visually impaired & often read AltTxt."

I'm surprised it's that low.

Yup. No visual deficiencies. Always read it. Always write it.

With memes I tend to keep it short. E.g. I just say "finger guy meme" for the one on this reply. When it's something visual I describe it. When it's one of my cats I like to keep it funny and I use their names, "calico tortie Thebe" or "tuxedo tom Tobi".

@jf_718 alt text helps hugely with searching and filtering and sometimes it does with understanding what’s going on in an imags.

Another advantage is for people with slow connections.

I'm borderline visually impaired insofar as I'm old and often looking at tiny images on my phone screen, so I read alt text to find out what I'm looking at. It's especially helpful if the image has text (cartoons etc).

When I write alt text I mostly aim for context rather than literal visual description of everything in the picture.

I dont really read it but i still think its important to have.

But i use subtitles on movies etc even though i speak the language, so yeah these things arent always *just* for the people you might have in mind first.

AltText is important because the hard truth is that not everyone can make a coherent meme.

There. I said it.

I agreed with you before I saw the poll results, which absolutely agree with you.

I'm reminded of a cartoon I saw of a caretaker shovelling snow off the steps into a school, saying something like "when I'm done with this, I can work on the ramp." The response is "yeah, but if you did the ramp first, then everyone could get in together."

I usually put more posting text in the image's alt text than I do in the post.

I'm often frustrated by how often the alt text reporting bot ranks my instance. Sometimes we get over 50%, but not often.

I have visual impairments, but not blindness specifically. Alt-text is still used by me on occasion for additional context and those times where I'm encountering a slow/spotty connection.

I'd imagine TTS would be handy for those times my eyes are badly fatigued and I can't look at the display.

@stux

Not visually impaired and sometimes read Alt-Text. I can’t force it into the ‘often’ or ‘rarely’ cubby holes.

I'm not visually impaired and checked "rarely" but "rarely" includes _occasionally_, which I _absolutely do_.

But as a percentage of images I see, it is indeed rare.

I use it as an opportunity to understand things that aren't visually clear.

Famous people are big here. I'm not very "up" on television/etc. and don't always recognize celebrities.

So much accessibility tech is useful to everyone. I use the buttons to open doors all the time when I'm carrying something cumbersome. I use the wheelchair ramps when I'm pushing something on wheels. I use a screen magnifier to make sure pixels line up when working on a code project. I can look elsewhere than the pedestrian crossing light when waiting because it'll beep when it's my turn.

There's literally no argument against making society accessible.

I don't often read it. I have good vision and I don't often have data connectivity issues. I still provide alt-text in images I post because I know some people need it.

If you come across something I posted which doesn't have it please let me know politely and I'll add it.

It is really helpful if alt text explains the joke in the image.

English is not my first language and often it is hard to understand what is going on.