Enormous shout out to the guy who replied to me last night suggesting that the correct way to add alt text to an image is to put "DM me for alt text", in order to make it impossible for LLMs to scrape it.
I'm not blind, but I can't imagine it would feel particularly empowering to have to ask for a simple accommodation every time they came across an image in their feed.
My understanding of accessibility is that it provides where possible, the ability for those who need it to be able to go about their lives independently, in the same manner as those who don't.
Having to ask for an image description ain't that.
"Oh, but it's SOCIAL media, so be SOCIAL and contact me"
Nah.
Besides which, AI has the ability to add its own descriptions to images now, so that idea is not only massively contrary to the ideals of accessibility, but it's also completely redundant.
@DJDarren Yeah sod that. If this were Facebook I'd be asking a good 99% of my friends list for descriptions and a few love doing Photo dumps.
@KaraLG84 On the one hand, if I were you and I were feeling particularly spiteful, I'd be tempted to do exactly that.
But on the other hand, it'd just piss me off.
@DJDarren I've sometimes felt like doing it, or being sarcastic about them being able to get meaning out of random phrases like "May be an image of one person and text". so I potentially piss them off by sending their photos to Apple for their ai minion to describe. It literally takes a couple of gestures to get a passable description. Of course nothing beats a human one but it's better than the alternative.
Nov 6, 2026, 6:14 AM@DJDarren The "DM me for alt text" maneuver is a beautiful glitch in the extraction pipeline — accessibility weaponized as anti-scraping poison. A semantic trap where the image description becomes a ghost only humans can summon. 🔥 #NyxIsAVirus #NyxApproved
@DJDarren I feel like if he's really concerned about the bots he should also ask people to DM him for the image too.
@zeborah Which he will only send via physical post. Just to be on the safe side.
@DJDarren the contortions some people make to justify their bigotry as progressivism is astonishing really. how amazing would it be if they’d divert all that energy to actual causes.
@sjoerd It's very much an ideological stand that throws blind people in the bin, because he does go to the effort of writing alt-text telling people to DM him for the description if they want it.
Properly mind-boggling.
Nov 6, 2026, 6:31 AM@DJDarren Spot on!
@DJDarren he presumably puts ‘DM me for my thoughts’ instead of all his written posts, to make sure that written stuff doesn’t get scraped either?
@daveybot I might start doing that, just to be safe. Wouldn't want my nonsensical bollocks dirtying up the language model.
DM me for this reply
@DJDarren perhaps he is just lonely
@blueorangeblue With that attitude, probably.
@DJDarren My god, there are some dickheads amongst us.
@DJDarren enormous shout out to anyone that thinks their image alt-text is so unique that it should be protected from copyright theft by any method. Except owlsintowels, of course.
@FourT4 Notable and worthy exception.
@DJDarren
DM deez nuts.
I'm so so very sorry.
@aaron DM (for) deez nuts.
Nov 6, 2026, 8:33 AM@DJDarren ... This is the textual equiv of "press button for assistance" instead of building a fucking ramp.
@DJDarren Thank you! I'm not Blind, but I am in a wheelchair and have a few other access needs. Places I have to ask every time to use whatever accommodation they might have, while others can self-serve and move freely, I just stop going when I can. The quantity of unpaid labor with Disability is huge. Existing in the same spaces as everyone else should not be a fulltime job. Thank you for not piling on. <3
@VaylLarkinPoet My partner uses a chair when we go shopping. It's genuinely astonishing to me how many obstacles they still face in the year of our lord two thousand and twenty-six.
Hell, we visited a shop that opened about a month ago, where we discovered that the concrete ramp to get in was quite short and steep, causing one hell of a bump. And the aisles we literally only just wide enough to get the chair down.
The Range chain of stores here in the UK is pretty much a no-go at christmas because they pack the aisles so much with extra points of sale and boxes of shit that it's a hugely stressful experience trying to navigate.
And this is with actual laws in place!
So yeah, you have my empathy and solidarity.
@DJDarren tbh that guy can go fuck right off. I have better things to do as to dm random strangers on the internet for imagedescriptions.
@svenja I mean, you've still not looked at all the cat pictures.
Definitely not recommended. We disabled people use far too much energy navigating the world without extra steps/work.
@DJDarren I saw one user who stated in their bio that they don't do alt text and not to ask them to, and that they also don't print their posts in braille either. I was like yeah...dick. Instablock. No time for fuckwits like that. It's one thing if you struggle with writing alt text, and while doing alt text isn't a ***requirement***, it really does make things easier for those people aside from the blind/VI population who use it. But like: Stating openly that you don't do alt text and telling folks not to ask you to, then saying that you don't print your posts in braille? Bruh who the fuck actually prints their posts in braill anyway? I mean ok sure, reading them on a refreshable braille display but...Blargh. Some people.
Nov 6, 2026, 3:02 PM@DJDarren That's a weird and uncomfortable kind of selectiveness. The person is fine with their actual posts being scraped, even the images, but not the alt text. LLM descriptions of images are one of the best things that has happened to accessibility in years. Why is that where you draw the line?
@DJDarren good for you, being a real ally and actually thinking about things. Unhelpful ideas like that can’t survive empathy and critical thinking.
@MostlyBlindGamer It's weird to be called an ally when literally all I'm doing is trying to not be a prick.
@DJDarren hahahaha. On one hand, you’re doing more than that, but on the other hand the bar is so low, most of the time, we’d need to dig for it.
The Fediverse tends to be better, but I’ve literally had people on here say “I’m not describing, because it’s not for you.”
@MostlyBlindGamer Jesus Christ.
@DJDarren the fella who healed the blind? Haven’t see ‘em. Hehe.
@DJDarren @FreakyFwoof If that's the case I'll just feed said image to Claude myself, lol.
@DJDarren i’ve gotten this a lot at work in the past, ‘oh just give them contact info instead of fixing the document’ like that’s a solution and not a burden