#so i get needing simple sentences to understand
A few notes on accessibility within alterhuman (specifically plural) communities:
- Copy-and-paste fonts and unicode symbols are not accessible. Symbols, in small amounts, while mildly annoying sometimes, are fine. Copy-and-paste fonts are absolutely horrible, especially if you’re trying to convey information. Most, if not all of them, do not read as english. This is due to how unicode works.
- Using accessible language is a must. Overly metaphorical and flowery language is hard for a lot of people with learning disabilities to comprehend.
- Please include alt ID and image descriptions. They’re helpful beyond comprehension.
- Bright and clashing colors aren’t readable most of the time, and on top of that can trigger seizures and migraines in some. It’s best to avoid them if you’re trying to make your posts or images accessible.
- If you can acknowledge something might need an image description or translation and you don’t provide one you are kind of an ass. Always provide translations when you think one is necessary.
- PUT! TRANSLATED! TEXT! ABOVE! WHAT! YOU’RE! TRANSLATING! It’s annoying enough for me to listen to my screenreader read jibberish, I don’t want to listen to it just to understand what people are saying.
I encourage everyone to reblog this and add stuff you see that’s inaccessible :].
accessible language also mean . not too much short forms . and understand not everyone able read , use , learn , and understand new or complicate words .
neopronouns , tone tags , new coin terms , so on . support people do what want . but need help - standard pronoun , say tone in full words , things like that .
and small size text . nightmare . can not read small .
another little thing . in place like tumblr , built in alt text not best because have limits . but also . someone who not use screenreader . can not get any help from that alt text , no way see .
this different in other place . in other place can sometimes hover and see . not tumblr .
can not always understand what see . this mean also need have describe sometimes . but unless tumblr change how work , can not use this way . so " i describe in alt text , so no one else need describe “ - something just see in main tag - not even true .
Using accessible language is a must. Overly metaphorical and flowery language is hard for a lot of people with learning disabilities to comprehend.
If I had a dollar for every time I completely lost the thread of a conversation because someone was going on about like, "You learn to consider, reflect, reconcile, and accept within each situation and come to understand you will never have the ability to precognitively master reality around you readily and easily. It takes attentive focus, care, and meticulous orienting of every detail if you intend to care for each aspect within.”* And I’m just in the back like, gods damn man I didn’t think you could get your head DIRECTLY up your own ass to huff your farts, that so efficient of you. How did you do that and why don’t you use words that make sense to anyone but you for a change?
It’s non-stop with certain sorts and I can’t follow high concept bullshit, man. I just cannot. I don’t know if it’s the ADHD or the autism or just the BS Alarm going off too loud to think over, but I don’t bother engaging anymore with people who can’t even write a sentence without loading it with piles of 8+ letter words. Nobody’s paying you for length, Dickens, spare me and talk like a regular person who isn’t in the process of eating an entire dictionary, please. And throw in some good concrete examples if you can, some of us are absolutely not conceptual learners here.
*This was a 100% real example by the way. Also they were racist as hell and got banned in the course of the conversation…lol.
I have a really hard time avoiding run-on sentences when I write. Rereading my own writing long is torturous and sometimes I can’t even make sense of my own sentences. Unfortunately that’s just what ADHD does to a writer’s brain.
What makes accessible writing extra difficult for me is that English is my second language, so I’m used to completely different sentence structures and grammar. I’m used to different comma rules and I’m used to words that don’t have direct English translations and it all makes for a confusing mess.
Sometimes it’s not easy to make things accessible because you, yourself, are neurodivergent or have other obstacles to overcome.
