#AltTextPalestine is an online, grassroots organizing campaign on Twitter created by disability activists to make information about the genocide in Palestine more accessible. This initially started with adding alternative text, or “alt text,” to describe images coming out of Gaza. However, it has expanded to include other forms of accessibility, including video transcripts, video descriptions, and adding closed captioning to videos.

Why does #AltTextPalestine matter?

One billion people around the world have a disability, and when images and videos aren’t accessible, many disabled people can’t access them. When images don’t have image descriptions, people who are blind or have low vision don’t know what’s in the image. Without captions, people who are Deaf or hard of hearing aren’t able to know what a video says. This means that disabled people don’t have the same access to information and have a harder time learning about what’s going on, whether that’s through videos and images out of Gaza, infographics, or posters about organizing and protest activities.

However, there are many reasons why people may not make their content accessible. People may not know about accessibility best practices. People in Gaza are facing communications blackouts and a loss of fuel, so they might not have time to add accessibility information. And many of the videos and images coming out of Gaza are extremely traumatic. People who are directly impacted by what’s going on in Palestine, either because they reside there or have family or friends there, may be retraumatized by having to describe those images to make them accessible.

How do I make a request in #AltTextPalestine?

When you see a video or image that needs to be made accessible, simply reply to the image or video with #AltTextPalestine and a quick message asking for someone to add alt text/captions/a transcript. There’s no one way to do it! You can say “#AltTextPalestine please” or “AltTextPalestine add alt text,” or something else. You can also use #Alt4Me, which is a hashtag used by people requesting alternative text for images.

Volunteers who are participating in #AltTextPalestine are regularly monitoring the hashtag for requests. When they see a request, they can make the image/video accessible and respond to the request.

What kind of content can we request/add in #AltTextPalestine?

You can request (or make accessible) anything and everything related to what’s going on in Palestine, including but not limited to:

Images from Gaza and the West Bank
Screenshots of news articles about Palestine and Israel
Images from protests
Art about Palestine
Statements from politicians
Organizing calls to actions
Infographic about Palestine

This is a non-exhaustive list. If you think that something is relevant to #AltTextPalestine, go ahead and add it.

How can I participate in #AltTextPalestine?

Anyone can participate in making content more accessible. There is no organized volunteer group who is coordinating to do this. Instead, people from around the world are participating by making videos and images accessible when they can. So how can you participate?

Look through the #AltTextPalestine hashtag for any requests.

Anyone can make a request (as mentioned above), and you can help by answering those requests.

On Twitter, go to Search and search #AltTextPalestine. Then, click over to Latest. Look through the tweets to see if there are any requests to add alt text or captions, or if the hashtag was placed on inaccessible content (such as an image without alt text or a video without captions). Then, jump in and make it accessible.

Make content accessible as you see it.

Did you come across an image that doesn’t have alt text? A video that needs a transcript or captions? You don’t need to wait for a request, just go for it!

Tag accessible content with #AltTextPalestine.

Did you come across an image that already has alt text or a video with captioning? Quote Tweet it with “#AltTextPalestine (alt text already in quoted tweet) or #AltTextPalestine (video has captions). That will let people who are using the hashtag to find accessible content know that the image or video is already accessible. By doing this, we don’t just make the hashtag a way to request accessibility, but an accessible stream of information.

Make your own content accessible.

If you’re posting videos or images about Palestine, make sure that they are accessible from the start. When you post it, simply add #AltTextPalestine and it will add it to the accessible information stream.

How do I make someone else’s image accessible?

The best way to do this is to use quote tweets. Quote tweet the original tweet with the inaccessible video/image and add the accessible information in the original tweet. A great way to learn how to add alt text is to browse through the #AltTextPalestine hashtag and see what people are writing! You can see alternative text on an image by clicking the “alt” in the lower left-hand corner of an image. Browse #AltTextPalestine.

Here are a few specific examples of how you can add alt text.

Option 1: Quote tweet and re-share the image.

You can add something like “resharing with alt text for accessibility #AltTextPalestine.” Make sure to add the hashtag!

Option 2: Add the image description directly into the quote tweet.

You can also add the image description directly into the tweet, instead of sharing the image again, as Alice Wong does here. Again, make sure to add the #AltTextPalestine hashtag.

A screenshot of a tweet by Alice Wong @SFDirewolf. She is quoting a tweet by @18MillionRising that shows a protest on the Bay Bridge. Alice's tweet reads: "groups of cars blocking the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Protestors are on the bridge holding posters and a banner that reads, STOP THE GENOCIDE NO US MILITARY AID TO ISRAEL. #FreePalestine #FreeGaza #AltTextPalestine

Option 3: Reply with the alt text or the content reuploaded with alt text.

You can reply to the original tweet and either share the image description there, or reupload the content with alt text. Here is an example from @sleepyknave:

Tweet by Sharyn Blum @sleepyknave that reads "Same Image as @benphillips76 above with #AltTextPalestine for accessibility. Then there is an image of part of a poem called "Because of Us."

How do I handle triggering content?

Many of the images coming out of Gaza are horrifying, including close-ups of severe injuries and the bodies of those who have been killed. Although these are often not being shared with trigger warnings, when we are reuploading or adding alt text, you should still use trigger warnings. Why? Trigger warnings are for people with PTSD or trauma so that they aren’t caught off guard by images that could trigger a trauma response. This is especially important for those who are losing family and friends or who have lost loved ones in other conflicts or genocides.

When I am reposting graphic content, I use do this:

TW: graphic (or whatever trigger descriptor is appropriate here)

(then I insert the content)

If the content I’m reposting is very, very graphic, such as people’s bodies, I will often nest that content in a thread, where the first tweet includes: TW graphic nested in thread, then the dots. Then I add another TW graphic, next tweet. The third tweet has the TW repeated and the content, and then I add a fourth tweet that says TW graphic in tweet before this. See an example of nesting triggering content (trigger warning: dead bodies).

What if the image or statement is too long?

Twitter has a 1000 character limit on alternative text. This is a problem when adding alt text to a letter, lengthy statement, or infographic with lots of text. You have two options:

Use a placeholder image to continue the alt text. You can reshare the image or use the “continuation of alt text” image at the bottom of this question. Then, continue the alt text, using that image as a container.
For really lengthy alternative text (such as for a multi-page statement), you can use a site like justpaste.it. Justpaste.it allows you to paste or type in information and publish it at a unique URL, almost like a blog post. Here is an example of JustPaste.it for this AJ+ tweet: AJ+ Video on Malak.

Alt text container: a simple white graphic with black text that reads "continuation of alternative text

Using an Image to Text Converter

Some statements have lots of text, and they take a long time to rewrite word by word. The good news is that there are tools to help! Optical character recognition can take an image and generate a plain text copy of the text of that image. The website I use is OnlineOCR.net. Online OCR will allow you to convert five images every hour for free. How to use it:

Save the image you want to convert to your phone or computer.
Go to http://www.onlineocr.net.
Select your file to upload.
Select the language the image is using.
Select the format you want to use. Text Plain is the easiest to use for copying and pasting to social media.
Click Convert.
In 10 seconds, the text will pop up in a window.
Important: Make sure to proofread the text for accuracy!

It is vital that you proofread the text for accuracy. Clear text that is not underlined is the easiest for Online OCR to convert, and it can make more mistakes when the wording is less clear or is underlined (such as for links). Make sure to proofread and correct any mistakes before using it as alt text.

How do I make a video accessible?

Add captions

You can use a captioning app to add captions to and re-upload a video. There are many different captioning apps out there that use automatic transcription or allow you to manually transcribe a video. The app that I use is called MixCaptions. Unfortunately, MixCaptions only allows you to do a few videos for free, but it will allow you to manually add captions.

Important note: If you are using AI to generate captions, you must proofread the captions for accuracy. Automatic captions are only about 60% accurate, and they are less accurate when someone has a non-American accent or if the audio quality isn’t super clear. Inaccurate captions aren’t fully accessible, so make sure to proofread!

Write a transcript for non-English videos with English subtitles

Another way to make videos accessible is by adding a transcript and/or video description. A transcription is very important for making non-English videos with English subtitles accessible. For example, if a Palestinian is speaking Arabic, and there are English captions explaining what he is saying on the screen, someone who is blind cannot read those captions and won’t know what he is saying. You can transcribe those English captions into justpaste.it and someone who is blind or low vision will be able to read the English transcript of the video.

Note: This is important for making content accessible in other languages as well, for example, making English videos with Arabic subtitles accessible. However, because this #AltTextPalestine guide is in English, I am focusing on accessibility of English language content.

Write a video description

Video descriptions are also important. Someone who is blind or has low vision may not be able to see what is happening on video, and so just like with images, they need to have those videos described to understand what is happening.

For short videos, you can do this by just quote tweeting the video and describing what is happening in one or a few tweets. See an example of a video description in a tweet. For longer videos, you will want to use justpaste.it to write a video description, or a video description with a transcript. Here are some examples:

Can we go beyond #AltTextPalestine?

All content needs to be made accessible. While #AltTextPalestine is focused on Palestine, you should make images and videos accessible whenever you can. Whether that’s about other conflicts like the genocide in Sudan, or about things completely unrelated to conflict, we all have the opportunity to make the world more accessible.