Alt Text as Cross-Disability Solidarity

Especially if you have read my earlier LURNN posts, you know that I often live my equity values to my own detriment, so when I joined Bluesky by invite on November 11, 2023, I was pleased to see a setting that would disallow us from posting images without alt text, as I was reckoning with how much less reliable my memory had become in the aftermath of my single COVID-19 infection, trauma, aging, etc. Same as back then, I remain "a text poster" in terms of my posting style, so my 1st image post was not made until a couple of weeks later:

Although I now know that if the Bluesky word limit for alt text is exhausted, I can add a duplicate of that image and use the alt text space for that 2nd image to continue describing it, back then, I had not considered that, so my initial alt text description only managed to convey the text on 7 of the 13 post-it notes in my image. My point is that my commitment to Disability Justice means remaining open to improving so that I engage in cross-disability solidarity with folx whose disabilities are different from my own, like those who rely on screen readers for access.

As visible from my 1st image post on Bluesky, I have facilitated free virtual  Disability Justice arts programming (when I still got grant funding before alienating my local arts service organizations with my pro-Palestinian liberation stance), so my commitment to this framework is far from new, but until more members of the public invest in Disability Justice, we will never come close to achieving equitable outcomes for those of us who are marginalized in multiple ways, as I am. With that in mind, by the time Trump took office a 2nd time, I became increasingly engaged with Bluesky users who, like me, were also concerned about what fresh fuckery awaited us on Turtle Island. Over the course of months, memes, DMs, calls, etc., that engagement naturally extended to calling in mutuals to do better regarding alt text:

As James Baldwin has stated, "The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don't see," so after dedicating decades to equity work, I felt like I needed to at least try to call in my Bluesky mutual, Sandeep Bakshi, a fellow brown queer, who seems to believe that words mean things, as I do. To my delight, Sandeep responded well, as seen here:

After experiencing Sandeep's willingness to be accountable about promoting greater accessibility in future, I began approaching other mutuals, and over time, I have developed this standard post that I now routinely copy and paste when image posts lack alt text, especially when the account is held by a politician or publication, both of whom should be invested in making their posts accessible to all users, including those who rely on screen readers:

As you can see, earlier versions of this request for folx to consider adding alt text was noticeably snarkier, (but if you are reading this, then you probably already know that snark, like spite, has long driven my survival from trauma):

My point is that over time I refined my message in the hopes of conveying the importance of promoting greater access for folx who rely on screen readers as part of living my commitment to cross-disability solidarity. My reading material likely helped this process, as I have spent the last few months savouring Mariame Kaba's and Kelly Hayes' masterpiece, Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care (thanks to a free e-book download from Haymarket Books in 2024), as detailed with regular posts of quotes that resonated since I restarted it, (after initially starting it last year, before quickly getting frustrated by how much more slowly I read now, likely related to trauma, aging, COVID-19, etc.): 

If you follow me on Bluesky, you may have seen my struggles accepting titles of organizer or activist, even as I was added to more Bluesky lists and starter packs of organizers and activists, since it tends to remind me of one of many white queers who engaged in Access Intimacy Abuse of me over the last decade:

BTW on the off chance that you are looking for a gifted equity practitioner and educator for virtual services like writing, facilitation, and consulting, you are welcome to peruse my public CV, and explore my work further. 

Once I saw my Bluesky requests for users to provide alt text for image posts as part of my organizing work for Disability Justice, I was keen on tweaking my language if I could reach more folx like Sandeep, receptive to doing better.

That was how I connected with (white) Ryan, who had my back when a lawyer lied about "almost always" using alt text, and then got more defensive when I fact-checked him, using this alt text rating tool, which connected me with Black Ryan, in whose comedic reference my geriatric millenial soul just revelled! 🤣

Over the course of my requests to please consider adding alt text for image posts on Bluesky, there has been a multitude of impacts, including being placed on lists like Alt text nags, Chronically irritating accounts, and Self Righteous Scolds, but I want to highlight a particularly uninsightful reply, and share my thoughts about how our past behaviour is a much better indication of our commitment to a cause, rather than what may be stated in any policy, based on my lived experience as a disabled sociologist trauma survivor: 

In fact, every single workplace in which I was harassed had an anti-harassment policy, often created by the very leaders targeting me as a fat brown queer disabled immigrant woman whose actions were informed by my belief that the social work field was committed to equitable outcomes for all, even when it meant dismantling its complicity with settler-colonialism, white supremacy, ableism, etc! 🤡

Given over a decade of experiences of white supremacist workplace trauma, there are few things I trust less than a policy, especially after receiving my first unjust suspension from a BIPOC writing group as retaliation from its leaders despite what the Fellowship of the Griots' Community Guidelines stated at the time of their laughable suspension email! 🗑️

While that uninsightful Bluesky user would have made more sense had their post ended at, "I don't know," this political landscape is fraught with uninformed opinions like that, so I often remind myself that Maya Angelou stated, "Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better," which helps to manage the frustration that often accompanies my Disability Justice organizing work. On that note, in the final week of 2025, if you are in need of a 2026 new year's resolution grounded in Disability Justice, if you do not already do so, please consider adding alt text to posts with images as folx who rely on screen readers deserve equitable access. And the sooner you commit to adding alt text to your image posts as an investment in the Disability Justice framework that Patty Berne and Alice Wong championed before their deaths earlier this year, the sooner you can get your alt text rating up to 100% like Sandeep, white Ryan, Black Ryan, and I, as the Bluesky alt text rating tool only captures the last 90 days of image posts! ✨

If able to contribute to my survival following my ex's financial abuse of at least $183,364, which further disabled me, alongside workplace trauma, e-transfers within "Canada" may be sent to krystaljagoo@gmail.com and funds may be sent via PayPal below, so please consider supporting me! 🙏🏾