fred_mouse

This week, I've pointed out to two people who send out work related newsletters that there is no alt text in their images. Either I have learned a little tact from the first run through, or the people I have contacted have been less helpy. (ah, and there would be a strong gender pattern going on, although small sample size and confirmation bias, etc., etc.).

The first one was easy - I showed the person I sit next two what their newsletter (goes out once a month, one header image and then a stack of text) looks like on my computer, and they were appropriately horrified. They have passed it up the line to the comms person who takes their text and published the newsletter. They've had a partial win, in that the image placeholder now actually has appropriate sizing, and no longer fills my screen. The first pass alt text was woeful, so I made a less worse suggestion -- given that there is a logo there, and it is the newsletter header, either of those things would be valuable to mention!

The second was barely more difficult. This is the weekly/fortnightly one that goes out to the whole department. Scrolled down to the bottom, discovered text that said 'send us feedback' and an email address, so I did. Got a very positive response that they are going to follow up on that, etc.

What I have concluded: either the comms team don't have accessibility guidelines, or that they don't apply them. I think my energy would be better used if I could work out who to target, and talk about this as a common issue across corporate comms, both for images and audio (have I whinged here about youtube autocaptions, and what they do to a) acronyms and b) australian accents? At least those are on a hidden youtube channel, linked in house)

An alphabet of accessibility issues explores 26 reasons why bog standard slapped together websites can be difficult to navigate.

Have just sent an email to middlest's school, complaining about an email received earlier in the week where all of the content was contained in the pictures. It says:

"I’m not sure if you are aware of this, but the email I received (below) contains almost no text. I’m not interested in downloading pictures, and as a result don’t know what the email is about. Iif any of the people you are sending this to are using screen readers, they are in the same position - the email is completely pointless. Please consider accessibility of your emails when sending them out."

anyone willing to lay bets on me getting a useful response?

I will also note that there was nothing that could have counted as alt text, the only thing I could read was the title. I'm pretty sure I know what it is about, but I actually don't care to read it, and if I get a less than positive response, I'll be replying again, cc'ing to the principal, explaining that all emails that waste my time like this will be deleted unread, and whether or not that is the kind of response that they are interested in from the parent body.

EDIT: email has bounced because apparently, recipient doesn't exist in the system. I have no energy to follow up to find out what the real rather than robot address is. Will hopefully remember at some point to find out who the appropriate person to talk to is.

Life where food is concerned is starting to get very distressing. Consider the following:
( cut for the details and the whinging, but not the conclusion )

I have come to one conclusion - I don't want people to bring food into my house if I can't eat it. I'd rather cook for 25 people than have a pot luck where I have to carefully work out what is in everything. For those potlucks, I take account of who is going to be there, and I aim to make *everything* safe for *everyone* (sometimes I fail, for example not realising that commercial salsa contains capsicum). I don't think that it can be that hard. And for people who want to say "but it is hard" - you are right, it is. And I live with my set of food issues *every day*, and I'm not asking other people to do that. And those who say "but I've seen you eat ..." - how long ago? how well was I feeling? was that the time that I discovered that it contains something I should avoid, at the cost of spending 2 days sitting on the loo? was it a version that I've made, without poisons? was it a week where I'd been so incredibly careful that I made a judgement that I was willing to accept the consequences? was I self-harming?

As to work - I'm thinking about going and talking to one of the equity people to get some perspective. I don't want this to be the issue that causes me to completely withdraw from my workmates.

In my email this morning is a completely incomprehensible email. There are at least 14 images (which I don't choose to have download), and some bits of random text interspersed. I could choose to download the images, but I got grumpy, because I don't want to have to. And I'm presuming that there are others for whom the choice is moot. So, instead, I have replied with the following:

Dear ... Marketing

This email completely fails as an accessible text. Without images, it is meaningless. Please do not reply with information about how to access images - this will not be appreciated. Please consider how you can make your message available to a wider range of people, regardless of whether their non-use of images is due to physical constraints, technological constraints, or preference.

fred_mouse

I recognise that this fails on tact. However, I think that they have failed completely on tact as well. And if I spent any more time on it, I wouldn't get the response done, because really, I just want to get back to the work I was doing.

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26	27	28	29	30

Alt text - two (probable) wins

link: alphabet of accessibility issues

cranky mouse writes

Food is the enemy

grumpy mouse is less than tactful

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April 2026

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