I'm getting ripped off by @squarespace and I would love your shared rage, a thread. #CripTax

So, Alex and I are redesigning our @DisabledListOrg website. I'm so proud of it, it's fucking epic. Early on in conversations with our designer, we decided to use images for the background so that we could add Alt Text. We did not want the background to go undescribed.

At one point, our amazing designer reached out to SquareSpace to ask how to add Alt-Text. They said it's not possible for background images. But they gave us a workaround. They said to rename the file with the Alt-Text description.

Two issues with this. First, we were limited to 500 characters for a file name which was half the length of the Alt Text. Second, the Screen Reader wasn't picking it up, and so it didn't work.

I reached out to SquareSpace via chat and they kept thanking me for reaching out (insert design for all bullshit here) and improving their website. And all I could think was, I don't want to improve your website. I want you to improve mine.

About an hour later they emailed, telling me there was nothing they could do, and they couldn't promise this problem would be fixed. So I reached out to my developer friend @suchwinston to ask if there was anything that could be done.

Winston looked into it and realized that by adding a snippet of code, he could create Alt Text for background images. I was thrilled.

One hitch, I had to upgrade my SquareSpace plan (paying an additional $85+ a year) for the premium feature of code injection. I decided I was going to pay the fee and then write SquareSpace and let them know we created this code (which they could easily incorporate into the site)

... asking them if they would refund me. Their response was I had two choices. I could keep the Alt Text which meant paying an additional $85 a year or I could downgrade my plan and lose the Alt Text.

As of now, I am stuck paying an additional $85 a year, simply so that my background images can be described. Here's a Tweet from Winston about it: https://twitter.com/suchwinston/status/1283176241860927491

Please, someone, validate my rage. This has just flattened me. I want Alt Text at no additional charge. #CripTax