How to Keep Doing Descriptions (from someone who does a fuckton)
Plain text: How to Keep Doing Descriptions (from someone who does a fuckton)
This is a list aimed mostly at helping people who already write IDs; for guides at learning how to do them yourself, check my accessibility and image description tags! I write this with close to two years of experience with IDs and chronic pain :)
- Get used to writing some IDs by using both your phone and your computer, if you can! I find it easier to type long-form on my laptop, so I set up videos and long comics on my phone, which I then prop up against my laptop screen so I can easily reference the post without constantly scrolling or turning my head
- I will never stop plugging onlineocr.net. I use it to ID everything from six-word tags to screenshots of long posts to even comic dialogue! On that last note, convertcase.net can convert text between all-caps, lowercase, sentence case, and title case, which is super helpful
- Limit the number of drafts/posts-to-be-described you save. No, seriously. I never go above 10 undescribed drafts on any of my four blogs. It doesn’t have to be that low, but this has done wonders (italics: wonders) for my productivity and willingness to write IDs. If I ever get above that limit, even if it’s two or three more, I immediately either describe the lowest-effort post or purge some, and if I can’t do that then I stop saving things to drafts no matter what. No exceptions! Sticking to this will make your life so much easier and less stressful
- My pinned post has a link to a community doc of meme description templates!
- Ask! For! Help! Please welcome to the stage the People’s Accessibility Server! It’s full of lovely people and organized into channels where you can request/volunteer descriptions and ask/answer questions
- I make great use of voice-to-text and glide typing on my phone to save my hands some effort!
- Something is always better than nothing!!! A short two-sentence or one-sentence ID is better than no ID at all. Take it easy :)
- If you feel guilty about being unable to reblog amazing but undescribed art, try getting into the habit of replying to OP’s post to let them know you liked it! This makes me feel less pressured to ID absolutely everything I see
- This is a sillier one, but I tag posts I describe as “described” and “described by me.” When saving to drafts, I never preemptively tag with “described by me,” since for some reason that always makes me feel extra pressure and extra stress. Consider doing something similar for yourself if that applies!
- I frequently find myself looking at pieces of art which feel like they need to be considered for a bit before I can write an ID for them, and those usually get thrown into drafts, where the dread for writing a comprehensive ID just builds. Don’t do that! Instead, try just staying in the reblog field for a bit and focus on the most relevant aspects of the piece. Marinate on them for a little; don’t rush, but don’t spend more than a handful of seconds either. I find after that the art becomes way easier to describe than it initially seemed!
- On that note, look for shortcuts that make IDs less taxing for you to do! For example, I only ever describe clothes in art if they’re relevant to the piece; not doing that every time saves a lot of time and energy for me personally
- Building off of that, consider excusing yourself from a particular kind of ID if you want to. Give yourself a free pass for 4chan posts, or fanart by an artist who does really good but really complex comics, whatever. Let it be someone else’s responsibility and feel twice as proud about the work that you can now allot more energy to!
- As always, make an effort to find and follow fellow describers! It’s always encouraging to get described posts on your dash, and I find that sometimes I’m happier to ID an undescribed post when the person who put it on my dash is a friend who tagged it with “no ID”
TL;DR: To make ID-writing less stressful and more low-effort, use different devices and software like onlineocr.net and voice-to-text, limit the amount of work you expect yourself to do, and reach out to artists and other describers!