Last updated on November 26, 2023
We should carefully consider when trying to make everything accessible gets in the way of making things useful.
The challenge of designing for equal opportunity and access to information (and entertainment) leads to some choices that impede the reception of important information. The detailed supplemental captions available for some movies and live events can be so detailed that I end up turning off the captions. I really don’t need the extra atmosphere in a scene to be so detailed that I waste my energy reading something I can see. If the screen is showing me people stomping and clapping, the caption, “[Sounds of people stomping their feed and clapping their hands each around the stadium]” is more annoying than practical.
Supplemental audio for the blind can be as annoying, according to several of my friends. These friends have gone back to listening to simulcasts on radio instead of listening to the extra-detailed audio some televised sports offer. Radio broadcasters offer plenty of useful color commentary to the games.
Another pet-peeve is the absurdly long “alt” (alternative) text appearing with some online images. Please, keep it short. Just the facts, as Sgt. Friday would suggest. Stop including paragraphs of information, especially if the image is eye-candy embellishment without another useful function. I blame Facebook for the demand that every article include images, leading to disconnected images.
Do not use detailed captioning for clipart with posts if the clipart adds nothing to the story. If the image serves only as a visual metaphor loosely connected to the text, a word or phrase should suffice for the caption.
Example: A story on employment with an image of a manual 1800s typewriter. The caption added nothing and explaining the image is so tangential as to be confusing. “Image of an 1890 Remington Model Number 7 typewriter on a wooden desk with paper nearby and light creating an image flare on the R of the logo.”
Okay, but the story is about young people today facing a confusing job market in which autism is another barrier to success interview skills.
I’d argue for captioning images only of the image adds value to the content. Usability must consider usefulness, too.