lmmarsano

For the record, I’m not making a free speech absolutist argument.

That’s a really strange disclaimer over a fundamental right akin to

I’m not a self-determination absolutist

I’m not a due-process-of-law absolutist

I’m not a freedom-of-movement absolutist

I’m not a freedom-of-conscience absolutist

I’m not a warranted-search-and-seizure absolutist

Absolutism here isn’t mentioned to disclaim protection of illegal speech, because that’s already unprotected, and no one here would dispute that. In this context, absolutism disclaims protection of unpopular speech people here would denounce, so it disclaims freedom of speech entirely.

This denies the presumption of a fundamental right as protected, which is entirely backward. Fundamental rights are presumed protected, whereas attempts to restrict or challenge them need strict scrutiny. The less common disclaimer

I’m not a censorship absolutist

is an asymmetry revealing a copout.

As for regulation, it’s a private device people are free to denounce, customize, or reject for a competitor. People have the liberty to produce & choose censored junk. An open society doesn’t restrict such choices when it can leverage fundamental rights^[1] to denounce, criticize, and challenge.

This is among one of many techniques presented at the WCAG site you linked. You putting text in a top level comment would seem to me to satisfy this, at least in intent.

Not in the slightest: the guideline falls under Principle 1 – Perceivable

Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive.

as Guideline 1.1 – Text Alternatives

Provide text alternatives for any non-text content so that it can be changed into other forms people need, such as large print, braille, speech, symbols or simpler language.

The sight-impaired user is unable to perceive the text content hidden in the image at the post listing level that the sighted user can perceive. Your suggested text alternative is simply not there to display at the post listing level. Your suggested execution of the technique fails its test

1. Remove, hide, or mask the non-text content
2. Display the long description
3. Check that the long description conveys the same information conveyed by the non-text content.

since we can’t display a description absent from the page. Your nonsolution misapplies the technique & is not a credible text alternative.

Imagine opening every post to seek among an unsorted mass of comments a comment we can’t seriously expect to exist providing a text alternative not written by the author & of questionable integrity: the user has no incentive to take that additional effort for a post that already violates web accessibility. They may not even be aware a post needs a text alternative. That is not equivalent to the experience of a user who can read the image.

The best solution is not to use any web accessibility technique: actual text doesn’t need it. Sharing it as an image was gratuitous & unnecessary. The post could have been proper text with the same bolding & line breaks.

to offer and make accomodations to the best extent possible

which your nonsolution here definitely is not: the post remains inaccessible. That is not due to a limitation of possibility: it’s due to a failure of will or execution. As originally stated, posting proper text or setting alt text is possible.

A separate comment only gives the commenter an unfounded sense of accomplishment, when they’re only enabling the posters to continue violating web accessibility without any pressure to correct themselves. Structurally prolonging dysfunction that way is the opposite of helpful.

Because that’s not a solution: the post remains inaccessible. Unless you edit the post, demanding they fix it is the only solution.

I see stating the obvious struck a nerve for the downvoters, so let me dumb it down for the unfortunate ilk unable to grasp the obvious: y’all full of shit. You think someone scrolling through posts the same as you is going to notice a text alternative hidden away in some comment on some other page? You expect them to open every post unlike you for something that likely won’t even be there? That’s not equivalent in the slightest. Shit’s daft as fuck: keep dreaming.

Now examine critically the substance of the other commenter’s actions. While the comment is effective at drawing upvotes, is it actually effective at the main outcome of doing anything meaningful for accessibility as they purport? No, the comment doesn’t appear to anyone scrolling through posts. Tellingly, the community is simply rewarding self-indulgent ploys to gain upvotes that do nothing for accessibility while condemning meaningful answers to actually solve it. That’s quite damning.

It indicates a toxic community that cares more about indulging community narcissism than acting on their purpose directly within their capacity right here to address an issue in their control. A real progressive would care enough about equal access to look up & determine the truth on the matter, so they can pursue and promote real answers instead of empty gestures that don’t meaningfully address inaccessible content. The placebo they pretend works stops them from developing real cures.

In sum, some lemmy communities in particular are toxic & hostile to web accessibility in ways we don’t find in bluesky and other parts of the fediverse such as mastodon where web accessibility is common practice.

Back to the point, here’s an introduction to web accessibility that you seem to sorely need. You can also read the technical guideline while you’re at it. However, your nonsolution is an unhelpful illusion that diverts people from pursuing credible solutions.

checks alt text

(nothing)

The message is good, but it’s an image of pure text unreadable to anyone who can’t see images.
It’s very un-progressive to exclude others, and the lack of proper text makes it unsearchable.
OP needs to update the post to proper text or redundantly set a text alternative.

Many academics have vocally disagreed with Haidt’s conclusion that social media can be directly linked to declines in teens’ mental health. Haidt’s former colleague Peter Gray, a psychology research professor at Boston College, recently published a book criticizing Haidt’s theory as promoting a moral panic and offered an alternative theory that pins adolescent mental health issues to the rise of a stringent education curriculum under Common Core. Other prominent researchers also have critiqued the theory, and several large studies and meta analyses have found little or no direct effect of social media use on teen mental health at the population level.

Still, Haidt’s theory has gained credence with many parents, teachers, and teens who believe it reflects their experience with social media.

Anytime someone brings up paradox of intolerance in the fediverse, the chance is very high they’re completely wrong about it and are regurgitating shit they read from some dumbass on social media.

1. The paradox of intolerance is a paradox, not a conclusion.
2. The reductive conclusion social media dumbasses insinuate by invoking it is entirely wrong according to the philosopher who articulated the paradox.
3. Intolerant carries a more technical meaning in philosophy (at least to that philosopher) than a mere disagreement with other ways: it includes the element of imposing (by unjustified force) on society to literally prohibit other ways. People who do not force us to comply with their position are tolerant.

From the article (you didn’t read or understand) quoting Karl Popper (extended with the rest of the passage)

[Less well known is the paradox of tolerance: Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.—In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be most unwise.] But we should claim the right to suppress them [intolerant ideologies] if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols.

The type of intolerance they refer to is the kind that uses force and refuses debate. They even explicitly reject that we should in general “suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies” as long as rational argument & public opinion still govern public choice.

They were absolutely arguing in favor of more open discourse & deliberation, not less of it, to reform government without violence and restrict its potential damage. That means tolerating opinions we disagree with from people who don’t try to impose them with force.

Their discussion on public policy has no bearing on the democratic consequences accepting code that “solves the problem” from people we disagree with. It’s pretty much accepting charity and doesn’t imply you promote or agree with their views at all. Philosophers generally scoff at purity policing bullshit and genetic fallacies, especially those who emphasize free, open inquiry and rational argument as crucial to an open society.

A spokesperson for Cornell said in a statement on Tuesday that “the second-hand account of the question asked by President Kotlikoff in a January 2025 meeting in the letter is incorrect, based on a documented first-hand account.”

“The question ‘why did it take so long for the assault to be reported’ was directed at bystanders who did not use Cornell’s anonymous tip line, despite ongoing social media activity about the incident in October 2024,” the spokesperson said. “He was not questioning Jane Doe’s reporting.”

Nice.

I would be happy to add your links

There are probably better ones. As a web developer, you may know a few.

The technical guidelines are the most general covering every situation & technology including those unlikely here. We’re most likely dealing with Situation B in those guidelines

Situation B: If a short description can not serve the same purpose and present the same information as the non-text content (e.g., a chart or diagram)

It states that following technique

G95: Providing short text alternatives that provide a brief description of the non-text content

plus an additional technique including any of

• G73: Providing a long description in another location with a link to it that is immediately adjacent to the non-text content
• G74: Providing a long description in text near the non-text content, with a reference to the location of the long description in the short description

suffices. In practice, that suggests (in order of practicality to minimize effort)

1. If a web accessible alternative exists (eg, the image came from a web accessible web page), then set the post’s URL field to its location and set the post’s alt text field to “comic as described in link”.

2. Otherwise, set the post’s alt text field to “comic as described in post body”, and set the post’s body field to a text alternative. The poster will probably have to transcribe the comic. Text recognition technology may assist in that task.

   If the text alternative is short, though, then setting the alt text field to the entire text alternative suffices as described in technique H37.

submitted 2026-04-09 20:12:57 +0000

I will accept feedback (comments in this post) until Saturday, April 11, 2026 at 3PM EDT (19:00 UTC)

That was slightly less than 2 days.

How about basic web accessibility^[1]: at the very least a text alternative^[2][3] or link to a web accessible alternative?
It ought to be prerequisite to any web content.
All web interfaces allow setting alt text & URL fields when submitting/editing a post.
There is no valid excuse not to post web accessible content & enforce that as a standard, and it’s a basic sign of human decency/respect.