ASCII art and emoji memes are a common fixture of social media, incorporating creative arrangements of letters, numbers, symbols, and emoji to create mosaic-style art, convey a message, or for aesthetic purposes. Many of these images contain a message or reminder, or may contain references, jokes, or quotes from different sources. As someone with low vision, I often have a lot of trouble figuring out what is in ASCII art or emoji memes that I see other people post or that my friends send me, because it’s hard for me to see how characters are arranged or I find myself second guessing what I am looking at. Here are my tips for how to make ASCII art and emoji memes accessible for users with visual impairments on social media, and why these types of images are inaccessible in the first place.
Why is ASCII art not considered accessible? Why are emoji memes inaccessible?
ASCII art and emoji memes can be difficult to access for people with visual impairments, a term inclusive of blind, low vision, neurological visual impairment, and other forms of vision loss. While these types of posts are nearly impossible to decipher for screen reader users that access social media nonvisually, it’s not just screen reader users that run into accessibility barriers. Some examples of reasons why ASCII art and emoji memes are inaccessible include:
- Fancy text with lots of extra embellishments can be difficult to distinguish for people with low vision, and screen readers may not recognize the characters or text
- Screen readers read information one line at a time, from left to right. While having blank space is not an issue, adding random characters or randomly spacing out words can be hard to understand
- Large amounts of emoji can be difficult to distinguish and may be hard to focus on, and screen readers will read every single emoji that’s in a social media post or username
- Shapes or images created from text may be difficult to see or identify, and spacing may be distorted by large font sizes or display scaling
- For braille displays, emoji names are displayed in braille, and punctuation is encoded in braille as well, making it difficult to explore ASCII art or emoji memes by touch (unless it is braille art designed to be printed)
Related links
- Emoji and Low Vision
- Free Braille Art and Tactile Image Libraries: World Braille Day 2024
- A to Z of Assistive Technology for Reading Digital Text
- A to Z of Assistive Technology For Low Vision
The best way to share ASCII memes and emoji art: Take a screenshot and add alt text
When it comes to sharing ASCII art/memes and posts that have a lot of emoji, the best way to create accessible memes is to take a screenshot of the original post and add alt text that describes what is in the image. This addresses the following barriers faced by sharing these memes in their traditional text post format for visually impaired users:
- Alt text provides a transcription of any text that it is in an image, making it easier to figure out what is written.
- Screen readers will read the alt text for the image to tell the user what is in it, instead of trying to decipher a text post.
- Instead of reading emoji one-by-one, it’s easier to read alt text that describes key features of the image, or that says something like “three cake emoji” instead of “cake cake cake”
- Screenshots show content with its original font size, so large text or display scaling will not distort letter/symbol spacing. Additionally, alt text can provide context or let users know what is in an image so they aren’t left guessing what they are looking at.
- Braille displays will display the alt text so the user can know what is in an image, and get a better understanding of what is displayed.
Alt text provides a short text-based description of what is in an image, and can be added on social media platforms when sharing images. If an image fails to load, alt text will be displayed in its place, and the alt text can be accessed with assistive technologies like screen readers or braille displays.
Isn’t alt text usually supposed to show a transcript of text?
When sharing a screenshot of text on social media, most alt text style guides recommend sharing a transcript of the text or copy/pasting it verbatim. Since ASCII art and emoji memes are not meant to be read like a book or traditional text content, it makes more sense to describe it as if it were a picture, incorporating text if it is a caption or key part of understanding the image. I do not recommend adding emoji or multiple punctuation marks/symbols in a row when writing alt text as this can affect how the description is read.
Related links
- How To Write Alt Text and Image Descriptions for the Visually Impaired
- How To Add Alt Text On Social Media
Add an image description to provide context for memes
Image descriptions are text-based descriptions of visual details in an image written primarily for people who are visually impaired. Image descriptions are similar to alt text descriptions that are used by screen readers to recognize images, though there are a few key differences between alt text and image descriptions:
- Location. Alt text is typically attached to an image metadata or added in the “alt text” box on social media. Image descriptions may be in the image caption, in a text post, or otherwise incorporated into a social media post. For ASCII art and emoji memes that are captured in screenshots, an image description can be included in the image caption or an accompanying post.
- Visibility. Alt text is usually only visible to screen readers, which read the alt text out loud or display it on a braille display. Image descriptions are “exposed” and can be read by anyone. Saving an image does not save its alt text.
- Length of text. While alt text is typically limited to 100-250 characters, image descriptions can be the same length or even longer, since they are included in the photo caption, in a text post, or text link.
- Level of detail. Image descriptions tend to go more in-depth about visual details than alt text due to the larger character limit. However, most ASCII art and emoji memes will still have relatively short image descriptions.
I recommend including both alt text and image descriptions when posting content on social media so that everyone can read descriptions of images, not just screen reader users- especially since many users with low vision do not use screen readers when browsing social media. I personally prefer accessing image descriptions because they can be rendered in large print sizes, unlike alt text that may appear smaller or only when hovering.
Related links
- Options For Writing Extended Image Descriptions On Social Media
- How To Write Image Descriptions For Cosplay
Examples of image descriptions for ASCII and emoji content
Looking for inspiration when it comes to writing alt text and image descriptions for popular ASCII art and emoji meme formats? Here are some posts that came across my timeline:
- Emoji art showing several dozen fingers in varying skin tones surround a sign that says “add alt text” in the center.
- Shrug emoji
- ASCII art of a bunny holding a sign that says “Can you see this?”
- Emoji art showing all of the phases of the moon in sequential order, forming a repeating pattern
- ASCII art of SpongeBob SquarePants smiling
- A group of smiley face emoji arranged to spell HI
To indicate that an image description is being shared, preface the description with “ID:”, “Image description:”, or “Alt text:” so that users can find these keywords.
Related links
Make sure to credit original authors when creating accessible memes
If someone is modifying an ASCII meme or emoji meme to be more accessible, make sure to credit the original author or user who created the meme or image, so it doesn’t look like the content is being stolen. This should include the platform the content was originally posted on (if known) and the person who posted the art.
An example of how to include credit in an image description would be to write “Image description: A tweet from @veron4ica that has the lowercase letter I written four times, with a pair of glasses covering the two center dots on the I’s.”
Related links
- How To Make Your Instagram Feed Accessible For Visual Impairment
- My Ideas For Improving Alt Text Features On Social Media
More tips for accessible memes and responsible emoji use on social media
- As interesting as the decorative text and symbol combinations can be when added to usernames or bios, I recommend sticking to letters, numbers, and emoji when writing usernames and bios, especially for brands and business accounts. Repeating emoji should also be avoided, as this will read each emoji individually
- Looking to post accessible digital comics? Read How To Write Alt Text For Digital Comics
- Interested in learning more about accessible memes? One of the most popular posts on my website is How To Write Alt Text For Memes
Published November 27, 2019. Updated November 2024