Some pointers on #AltText for those who would like to write some for their images, but don't know how:
1) Any alt text is better than no alt text. Even a brief, barebones one makes a post more accessible.
2) In the same vein, less is more. It's tempting to be very detailed, but from what I gathered in my time writing IDs, too much text can be annoying. Imagine you'd have to listen to a screenreader read it to you - if you lose patience, you probably wrote too much.
3) Start with the most pronounced features of an image. If you have to get more wordy, e.g. when there's a lot going on in a picture, continue to work your way down from there to as much nitty-gritty detail as feels appropriate.
4) Describing people: If you're not sure how to describe certain aspects of their appearance, stick with the basics: skin / hair / eye color, hair style / texture, pronounced features (scars, freckles, etc.), e.g. "an Japanese person with long dark hair and a scar on their cheek".
5) DO NOT use food terms to describe someone's skin color. Use a simple descriptor instead, e.g. "light brown".
6) Fanart: State the name of the character and the media they're from. If the character featured looks like described or pictured in canon, you can skip detailed descriptions of their appearance. If the fanart deviates from it, I usually point out the most obvious changes, e.g. making a character Black or changing their hair color.
7) Landscapes: start with what's most prominently in the focus, then move backwards, e.g. "An image of a lighthouse. The sea around it is dark and choppy. Seabirds are flying in the distant sky."
8) Animals: if you know the exact breed, great. If you don't, saying "a brown dog with floppy ears" is more than enough.
9) Graphs, statistics, etc.: Well, this is a tricky one. I usually start with what it's about, then state the parameters of the graph and what they indicate, e.g. "a graphic of a survey on public transportation covering the last three decades, indicating more people are using it than ever".
10) Don't get too artistic. It's tempting to be poetic, especially as a writer, but stick to simple language.
11) DO NOT use alt text as a platform for hidden jokes without also providing the actual alt text. That's just rude.
That's all I can think of right now! Feel free to add to this list in the replies!
I've gotten quite a lot of questions about the functionality of screen readers, so I want to point out that I'm sighted and never used one. The best I can give you is guesswork.
@glittercleric Oh, the part about fictional characters is helpful. I always wondered if I should describe them for people who had never heard of them lol
However I would like to gently point out that "an Asian person" is not the best example to use because Asia is a big continent and people tend to forget that large swathes of it are in fact also Asian.
@puddleofchaos That's a fair point, I was going for general features but you're of course right, you can't generalize like that. I'm on my phone, so I can't edit the post right now, but I will do so next time I'm on my computer.
@glittercleric Thanks, I'll wait with boosting until that's done then
@puddleofchaos I fixed it :) Thank you again for the input!