Social media platforms should make it easier to add alternative text using an [Alt: description] syntax

Adding alternative texts to images on social platforms is not a “nice thing to have” but important to not lock people out. That’s why it is a shame that it is quite tricky to do it across different platforms. Personally I use Twitter, BlueSky, Mastodon and LinkedIn and the following video shows just how much of an overhead this is.

Adding alternative text to images on various platforms

Sure, I could use mass posting tools like Buffer, but I don’t want to. One thing I have seen people do when others do not add alternative text is answer in the thread with something like:

[Alt: An annoyed user with thick glasses screaming at a laptop]

Why is this not a part of social media platforms? Sure, the editors showing the image bigger and offering a text box below give more context, but they mean yet another interaction which is why people don’t add alternative texts. People tend to drag images in or paste them after they’ve written the post. It feels like a lot of extra work having to go to a different editor, when you’re already in a text box.

What about several images?

This gets a bit trickier, but not insurmountable. Just allow a few of them in succession with a linebreak:

[Alt: An annoyed user with thick glasses screaming at a laptop]
[Alt: A beautiful sunset on a beach with frolicking seals]
[Alt: Elmo of Sesame Street saying that he hopes that you choose to be kind]

Maybe one of the newer platforms could lead the way here. It feels bad to see a huge amount of social posts not having any alternative texts at all – which makes them a lot less social.