New Yorker?
In this case the information conveyed in the image is summarized in the post and elaborated on in the link, and the image is hidden from assistive tech. People using screen readers are being given the same information as people who aren't.
When image description would be meaningless or redundant, you should NOT supply any alt text in a bluesky post. Shoehorning in meaningless information is obnoxious, not helpful.
Here's the img element of the post. Note that the alt attribute isn't *missing* but is instead *an empty string*. Without this empty string, the SR will announce the file name (or maybe just "image") which provide no value. Bluesky supplying a null value hides the image from assistive tech.
Nope! When coding you should should tell the screen reader to ignore images that are decorative or redundant by providing an empty string as the alt text value: alt="". Luckily, we are not programming, and bluesky automatically supplies the null string when an image lacks alt text.
I suggest you familiarize yourself with what does and does not require alt text. The Perkins School for the Blind is a great resource. www.perkins.org/resource/how...
Making your website and social media accessible to people with blindness and low vision.
In this case, an image description is more appropriate than alt text since the image contains a great deal of detail. However, in this case it is probably best to provide a link to the original data, and that link is in fact provided!
If there is no alt text and you feel compelled to comment on that, provide the missing image description in your comment. If the description simply duplicates the accompanying text, it is unnecessary.
case in point