3.2.0

Making XKCDAltTextBot accessible

This update adds header support for Tweets, allowing for a customizable message to appear at the front of each tweet. For more info, read this new section in the wiki.

Behind the change

On a recent comic posting, Nicolas Steenhout started a discussion on how xkcd comics, and by extension this bot, don't use the alt attribute of images as intended. Best practices are that the attribute should be used to describe the image in text, providing support for users with accessibility needs or slow internet connections. Instead, xkcd uses that field for the title of each comic, and the title attribute to include the joke posted by the bot.

Afterwards, Nicolas posted an article explaining the importance of correct usage, and an example. It was this article that inspired me to make changes to the bot. Starting on 2020-12-23 (provided everything works properly), new tweets from XKCDAltTextBot will be prefixed with a link to a transcript from the wiki site explainxkcd.com. For example, here is the current transcript for comic 2400. Although the transcript is unofficial, and dependent on volunteers, it is a notable improvement from the current state.

Although I am unable to change how @xkcdComic posts its images, or how xkcd itself uses HTML attributes, I can do my part to help make the Internet more accessible to all.