toad.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
Mastodon server operated by David Troy, a tech pioneer and investigative journalist addressing threats to democracy. Thoughtful participation and discussion welcome.

Administered by:

Server stats:

274
active users

#MediaDescriptions

0 posts0 participants0 posts today
Replied in thread
@iFixit
and it doesn't look like you can attach documents to posts

You can't on Mastodon. I could, both here on Hubzilla and on (streams) where I post my images.

But I wouldn't have to. Vanilla Mastodon has a character limit of 500. Hubzilla has a character "limit" that's so staggeringly high that nobody knows how high it is because it doesn't matter. (streams), from the same creator and the same software family as Hubzilla, has a character "limit" of over 24,000,000 which is not an arbitrary design decision but simply the size of the database field.

By the way: Both are in the Fediverse, and both are federated with Mastodon, so Mastodon's "all media must have accurate and sufficiently detailed descriptions" rule applies there as well unless you don't care if thousands upon thousands of Mastodon users block you for not supplying image and media descriptions.

In theory, I could publish a video of ten minutes, and in the same post, I could add a full, timestamped description that takes several hours to read. Verbatim transcript of all spoken words. Detailed description of the visuals where "detailed" means "as detailed as Mastodon loves its alt-texts" as in "800 characters of alt-text or more for a close-up of a single flower in front of a blurry background" detailed. Detailed description of all camera movements and cuts. Description of non-spoken-word noises. All timestamped, probably with over a hundred timestamps for the whole description of ten minutes of video.

Now I'm wondering if that could be helpful or actually required, or if it's overkill and actually a hindrance.

CC: @masukomi @GunChleoc

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Mastodon #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #AltText #AltTextMeta #CWAltTextMeta #ImageDescription #ImageDescriptions #ImageDescriptionMeta #CWImageDescriptionMeta #MediaDescription #MediaDescriptions
joinfediverse.wikiHubzilla - Join the Fediverse
Replied in thread
@masukomi @iFixit And this is only mostly a transcript of the spoken words.

What if someone actually took upon themselves the effort to describe a video with a timestamped/timecoded combination of visual description, spoken word transcript and non-spoken word audio description? Especially if the visual description is on the same high level of detail that's expected in the Fediverse?

CC: @GunChleoc

#FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #MediaDescription #MediaDescriptions
@Christopher M0YNG Just out of curiosity: What would be an appropriate textual description for a video?

A description of what the video is about?

Or a detailed, time-coded description of the actual visuals throughout the whole video plus a detailed, time-coded transcript of the audio in the video?

If the latter, what details are required, regardless of topic and content?

CC: @Stefan Bohacek

#VideoDescription #VideoDescriptions #MediaDescription #MediaDescriptions
hub.netzgemeinde.euNetzgemeinde/Hubzilla
@Robert Kingett, blind I don't trust anything generated. At least not with super-obscure niche content like what I post.

And audio descriptions in general are why I'll never publish videos in the Fediverse.

I'd have to go into similar detail as for my pictures, only for moving pictures plus sound plus voice-over now. My descriptions would have to be so detailed that the video would have to pause to let the audio description catch up with the visuals. In fact, the video would spend more time paused while the audio description is rambling than actually moving, and it would never spend more than a few seconds moving at a time.

For one, I would have to describe and explain what the video shows at the very same level of detailed as I describe my images. And at least once I've described one single image at such a level of detail that it'd probably take a screen reader one full hour to read the image description aloud.

Besides, I would have take into account that it's a video. Everything would need timestamps. And instead of only describing the camera position and the camera angle, I would have to describe the camera movements like so:

Seven minutes, eighteen point one three seconds. The camera quickly rotates to the left around a vertical axis through a point roughly two point four metres straight ahead of the avatar. It starts rotating from the direction in which the avatar is facing, roughly twelve degrees to the east of north. The barn which has first appeared at five minutes, fifty-two point two eight seconds comes into view again, including all decoration around it. The camera only rotates around this vertical axis and not around any horizontal axis. The avatar does not rotate with the camera.

Seven minutes, eighteen point six four seconds: The video pauses to let this description catch up.

Seven minutes, eighteen point seven one seconds: The video no longer pauses. The camera reaches a rotation angle of roughly twenty degrees to the south of west. The rotation speed of the camera slows down. It continues to rotate to the left.

Seven minutes, eighteen point nine three seconds: The video pauses to let this description catch up.

Seven minutes, nineteen point zero four seconds: The video no longer pauses. The camera stops rotating at an angle of roughly twenty-five degrees to the west of south.


That is, in order to cater to deaf-blind users, I would have to have two time codes. One, the time code of the original video, not taking the pauses into account. Two, the time code of the described video with catch-up pauses.

And the video with catch-up pauses would be dramatically longer than the original video. Ten minutes of video would take me weeks to describe, probably over a month. And it would end up many hours long, depending on how much there is to describe and explain.

So a time code in the Braille description for deaf-blind users might actually read, "Six minutes, thirty-seven point five five seconds in the original video, fourteen hours, three minutes, forty-nine point two one seconds in this described version of the video."

By the way, no, an AI can't do that.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #MediaDescription #MediaDescriptions #AudioDescription #AudioDescriptions
hub.netzgemeinde.euNetzgemeinde/Hubzilla

How has a lack of media descriptions/alt text affected you, here as well as elsewhere on the internet (other social media, Discord servers and other chatting communities, etc.)?
(Unfortunately, the choice limit has left me unable to acknowledge those of you who are not affected by this issue. How inconvenient! I do hope you don't feel this is unfair ... :eyeless_smile: )
I have ... (Pick all that apply)
#Poll #Polls #Blind #Blindness #VisuallyImpaired #DisabilityMonth #DisabilityPrideMonth #DisabilityWrathMonth #AltText #ImageDescriptions #MediaDescriptions #accessibility #images

Continued thread

Thanks everyone!

Thanks to @t54r4n1 for showing me :help_describe: and some guidance for making descriptions, @lukethelibrarian for showing me @imagecaptionspls and #ALT4me, and @Mayana for a post linking to some CSS that, should someone be looking directly on my instance, will make it clearer that the image lacks description with a prominent border.

I'm hoping this will help make my posts more accessible from here on out.

So I upload art, but I understand the need for media descriptions.

The problem is I often don't have the spoons / capabilities to create an explanation that is clear and makes sense. Particularly if I'm especially manic/disocciated/overwhelmed/fatigued etc.

Does anyone have any tips to make this easier? I don't wish to alienate a whole section of people because of this but also don't wanna keep putting it off if there are solutions. #Accessibility #MediaDescriptions #AltText #Help #MastoHelp