If you’re like me, you love memes! Sometimes it’s very easy to walk into a meme rabbit hole and laugh as a cat, or Gene Wilder makes some cheeky statements by referring to ’90s pop culture. Often times, you can also speak in memes – by sending them to your friends on iMessage and letting them know how you really feel. Who still uses words?
The only thing about memes is that they are all visual as they are in the form of pictures or gifs. You have to be able to see them to understand the joke. However, the internet is full of images with no alt text – the tag screen readers use to describe an image. Due to the lack of this extremely important information, visually impaired people are missing out on the fun and unable to use memes in their daily conversations and be part of this cultural phenomenon. To solve this problem, Will Butler, Vice President of the Community at Be My Eyes, has started a new podcast called Say My Meme, which literally describes memes for the blind. In each episode, Cohost Caroline Desrosier’s Will, who is legally blind, describes some famous memes. So Will and the audience have the same experience of entering into this cultural expression at the same time!
The lack of alt tags in memes is due to the fact that they are created by ordinary people who may not always be aware of this very important accessibility. In addition to describing memes for blind viewers, Butler hopes to raise awareness of the importance of alt-tagging among the sighted.
Check out this really cool and fun podcast on the Apple Podcasts and Say My Meme website.
Here’s a taste of what these episodes look like:
Meme: A pig
Classic Art Meme (my favorite collection of memes on the internet!)
Source: Fast Company
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