Free options for blind/low vision users that can help with accessing online images that do not contain alt text or image descriptions that can be read by a screen reader

This weekend, I had the opportunity to give a flash talk about writing media descriptions for current events as part of the Protest Access-a-Thon, an event hosted by a group called Protest Access that focuses on making content related to protests and current events accessible…

Recently, I was on a video call where someone had enabled a custom video background that was designed to make it easier to concentrate on the speaker but ended up being very distracting for me as someone with low vision. The dim lighting conditions for…

The other day, I received a post request on Twitter asking about how to make Instagram stories accessible for low vision users. While I am not an active Instagram user, I am very familiar with Instagram stories and how they are used, as well as…

Over the years, I have had many friends who are talented at creating their own costumes, or cosplays, of their favorite characters from their favorite movies, anime, TV shows, and other media. Even though I may not be able to see a lot of the…

My friends and I love trying out new recipes, and one of our sources for inspiration is recipe videos that we find on social media that show different cooking techniques or flavor profiles we otherwise wouldn’t have thought of. However, a lot of these videos…

Earlier today, someone messaged me on Twitter asking if I knew of any free resources for helping students to practice data literacy skills, or articles about topics related to journalism and media production. I was excited to share with them that I have been using…

Over the last few weeks, I have seen a large number of animal videos on my social media feeds, and questions about how to write video descriptions for animal videos on social media. From penguins wandering around an aquarium to people’s dogs smiling at the…

Twitter started supporting alt text for gifs a few years ago, and one of the first questions I received when the feature debuted was about how to write alt text for gifs and where to find alt text on Twitter. I personally love that alt…

Recently, there has been a discussion about tips for using social media with photosensitivity, and how to avoid strobe lights on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and similar websites. As someone who has dealt with migraines triggered by strobe and flashing lights for eight years (with knowledge…

One of my good friends loves creating beautiful digital art, filled with lots of different colors, shapes, and a mix of both original characters and characters from pop culture. Recently, they asked me how to write alt text for amateur art, or how to write…

In the last few months, there has been an increase in the amount of ASCII memes and emoji memes on social media, and several people have been asking how to make these memes accessible for visual impairment so that people with vision loss or people…

My friends enjoy sending me short videos from the social media platform TikTok, and recently asked me if I had any tips for how to write video descriptions for TikTok videos, since I frequently ask them questions about the videos since I can’t read certain…

There have been a few conferences and talks that I have wanted to attend, but unfortunately couldn’t due to factors outside of my control, such as chronic illness, time, distance, or finding out about awesome stuff after the fact. Most recently, I had to miss…

When people ask me if I have any tips for improving accessibility of social media posts, I like to ask them if they know how to add alt text on social media platforms. While a lot of people know how to add alt text on…