Talk:Wikimedia Apps/iOS Suggested edits project/Alt Text Experiment

This file is decorative

Hi @ARamadan-WMF & @HNordeen (WMF),

Most images, like this one of a goat, are decorative. Sensory characteristics, hence images, should not be the sole means of conveying information, which is why the text conveys the information in most cases. Therefore, two reasons not to add alt text are :

1. that this image is decorative¹,
2. this image is already described in text near the non-text content.

¹ : In that's case, the tool should insert <!-- Decorative file --> to indicate that the alt attribute should be left empty (although MediaWiki still needs to improve its handling of empty alt attributes). LD (talk) 09:08, 24 September 2024 (UTC)

this example demonstrates what should be avoided, especially in the context of Cactus: the image is primarily decorative and adds little informational value. It can be described as an eye-candy.

If we want to treat this image as informative, the alt text should clarify its purpose (1, 2). In Cactus' context, alt + description should convey the idea that different cacti exist, which is not clearly the case in the description and alt text, except for those who can already see the image. LD (talk) 09:30, 24 September 2024 (UTC)

Hello @LD,

Thank you for sharing these points. We’ll take this into consideration as the experiment and its results (articles, images, and alt texts written) are evaluated by an accessibility organization. Additionally, we will revisit our onboarding for “Add an image” to ensure there is guidance on not adding purely decorative images. ARamadan-WMF (talk) 16:18, 24 September 2024 (UTC)

Thanks @ARamadan-WMF. I hope the accessibility organization will take our specifications into account, as outlined in Help:Images or the fact that Wikipedia is primarily focused on writing articles and delivering text-based information. LD (talk) 17:18, 24 September 2024 (UTC)

The organization has collaborated with affiliates in the past, and has been briefed on Wikipedia's policies. ARamadan-WMF (talk) 12:12, 2 October 2024 (UTC)

Alt text on Chinese Wikipedia

Hello, I found that recent edits adding alt text by iOS apps on Chinese Wikipedia are problematic (For example: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5), as the alt text description is similar to the caption and unhelpful for low vision users. I guess this may be due to the onboarding guidance not having a Chinese version (I'm not sure if it has been translated, as I don't have the iOS app)? Thanks. SCP-2000 (talk) 04:47, 18 October 2024 (UTC)

Hello @SCP-2000,

Thank you for raising this & sharing the edits. The edits you mentioned are coming from the“Add an image” feature, not from the guided alt text experiment, alt text edits made through the experiment use the edit summary “Added alt text.”

The low-quality alt text you saw as part of “Add an image” could be due to a few things:

• There is a “Learn more” link on the “Add an image” screen where users write alt text, but we’ve noticed that the link is not displaying the correct translation of Tips for Creating Alt Text guidance automatically, even though it has been translated, we’ve created a task to fix this: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T377887.
• During the experiment, which runs until November 5, users with fewer than 50 edits have access to the "Add an image" feature (this is so that we can see how they perform on the guided task that comes after “Add an image”).
• Before embarking on this experiment, we reviewed a sample of the alt text that had been entered by users in “Add an image”, and saw that 15% of edits evaluated repeated the exact same text in the image caption as in the alt text. We know that even somewhat experienced editors (those with 50+ edits) still repeat the caption as alt text.

The guidance within the separate “Add alt text” is translated and displayed before the user starts writing, here is how that looks when the device language is set to Chinese, Traditional (Taiwan). The bottom link leads to the alt text example section.

Add alt text on Wikipedia iOS app in Chinese languge

We plan to have the alt text written by users as part of both the "Add an image" feature and the “Add alt text” experiment evaluated and graded, and we’ll share the results. We can learn from common mistakes, and improve the guidance we share within our existing “Add an image” feature. Would you like to participate as a reviewer of the edits made?

If you have any feedback on the translated guidance, please feel free to share it with us. ARamadan-WMF (talk) 14:10, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

@ARamadan-WMF: Hello, apologize for my misunderstanding and thank you for your detailed reply.

• alt text edits made through the experiment use the edit summary “Added alt text.” I am curious if there is an easy way to track these edits on-wiki (e.g., recent changes)?
• Would you like to participate as a reviewer of the edits made? Yes, I am happy to participate. Feel free reach me on my talkpage or by email.

SCP-2000 (talk) 06:44, 27 October 2024 (UTC)

Because this was a time-bound experiment, we did not create an edit tag that can be used on Recent changes. If we implemented a permanent version of the alt text suggested edit, we would create an edit tag. The document we'll share with you for grading will contain revision ids for viewing the diff on-wiki. ARamadan-WMF (talk) 11:12, 4 November 2024 (UTC)