Further thoughts on image descriptions and fandom

[sqbr]

First: it's struck me that it would be really useful to have a consistent AO3 tag to add to art and comics with transcripts/descriptions, to make it easier for people looking for such works. Do people have any suggestions? "Transcript" is already used for certain kinds of prose, "transcribed art" maybe? "Described art"? "Art with description"?

Second: I was quite happy to see this in the preliminary FAQ for the Kaleidoscope fanworks challenge at dark_agenda:

Captions: Visual and audio content, especially those hosted on the Internet, often presents an accessibility issue for a significant number of us, not just those of us with visual and/or hearing impairments. For example, videos with English-language audio, for example, can pose a problem for some non-native English speakers and closed caption provides a helpful tool for them in processing what is being said.

Thus, we ask participants to consider providing some type of captioning for their fanwork if possible.

And then they go on to give some examples and resources.

Have many other challenges etc involving art and vids explicitly encouraged captions? It's the first time I've noticed it, but would be very happy if it's an emerging trend.

I've also been having fun thinking of disabled characters who would be plausibly eligible for the challenge.

Comments

[liviapenn]

"Transcribed art" might be confusing; people might not get right away that it refers to a comic with the dialogue transcribed, and think it means a picture with a descriptive caption.

I don't know how this works in terms of A03 wranglers, if every fandom's wrangler handles their own art, or if there are people who work on all art, but imo, it would be more useful to have different tags for sequential art with dialogue/captions that need to be transcribed (maybe "Transcribed" as the master tag, with "Transcribed comic" / "doujinshi with transcription" linked to it, etc.)

And then, "Captioned art"/"art with description" and "captioned vid" would probably need to be separate tags as well.

[sqbr]

I was thinking a single tag since I do both art and comics and am lazy, but on further thought two tags does make sense, I imagine there's a lot of people who would get something out of transcribed comics who have no interest in described textless pictures. *adds a "transcribed" tag to all my comics*

I don't know if AO3 has any art focused wranglers, though poking through the "Fanart" tag there are several art specific tags (Chibi, Cover Art etc) and I imagine there'll be lots more once they add more support for fanart, which I think is supposed to happen relatively soon.

Huh! I never thought to check if anyone had posted fanvids to AO3 but there's over a hundred of them. So yes, tags for them too.

[trascendenza]

Maybe put "transcribed" before whatever it is? Like "transcribed comic" or "transcribed art" or "transcribed picspam"?

And thanks for taking the time to post this, it's a good reminder to take into account when structuring rules for challenges I'm running.

[trascendenza]

Haha, nevermind, I missed that "transcribed" was your first idea. "Described" somehow doesn't have the same ring to me, and I'm not sure why.

"Captioned" might also work, though it seems like people associate that mostly with video rather than pictures/comics/art.

[sqbr]

Yes, I think "transcribed" is the best option.