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I try the internet’s favourite ways to use your phone less – and give you an honest review.
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How to write and add alt text to your images for inclusivity
The wonderful world of the internet is full of tools to help everyone belong. Alt text is one of them.
Adding alt text to your images is an easy way to help promote inclusivity and make your content more accessible to people using a screen reader.
Also known as an ‘alt tag’ or an ‘alt description’, alt text is the written copy embedded into an image that describes what the image shows.
Celebrate International Internet Day with a good old fashioned rabbit hole
In some ways, it simplifies – letting us get stuff done a matter of pings. Other times, it takes us down the most unhinged, directionless paths imaginable, a return from which becomes less likely with each click.
On International Internet Day, it feels right to focus on the latter. And by focus, I mean take 23 times as long as I normally would to pull together a coherent article.
What the — is wi-fi?
Do you ever just wonder, what the heck is wi-fiwi-fiwi-fi?
Wi-fi is pulsating light that creates radio waves to transmit massive amounts of data through the air.
Fun fact: your wi-fi and internet are two different things. wi-fi is used to access the internet. It sends data to all your devices so you can stay connected to the web. Whereas the internet is a global network of computers.
Our customers made us a finalist in the Finder Telco Awards 2022
The Finder Awards celebrate the best Aussie brands across 200+ categories. Regular customers like you pick the winners and finalists.
Finder works with Dynata – a data, insights and consulting company – to run
almost 20,000 surveys and get real, honest customer feedback on the
things they’re using.
If someone wins a Finder award, you know they’re doing something right.
Overusing emoji can be a real 💩 time
Imagine if, every time you saw an emoji, you had to describe what it looked like. Quite the mouthful, right? That’s life for screen readers.
Emoji are everywhere and with good reason: they add a lot to how we talk online. They’re equal parts gesture, expression and joke.
Whether or not you use 😂 or 💀 when you're laughing says something about you[SK1] [ZC2] (and 😬 says a whole lot when words won’t do).
Four communities to know from the Month of Belonging
No matter who you are, what you love, or what you’re into, there’s a place for you on the internet that makes it feel good to belong.
That’s what we highlighted throughout March with the Month of Belonging. We dove into the wonderful ways us humans come together and spoke to some inspiring people and organisations along the way.
What to do with old tech lying around the house
One overused laptop, two replaced phones, a keyboard that’s missing the ‘A’ button, and a wireless mouse that’s clinging on for dear life (with a replacement nearby).
Technology evolves much faster than we can keep up with, which often results in a backlog of unused devices lying around the house.
Using all caps for accessibility
We all know someone who loves to use all caps a bit too much in their messages. It makes things sound a bit shouty.
But there’s at least one good time to go all caps: when you’re having a laugh (and you want to let screen readers in on it).
When a word is all lowercase, a screen reader will just read it as a regular word. That turns ‘lmao’ into ‘la-mayo’ and ‘roflmao’ into ‘rofle mayo’.
Making social media more accessible
Social media has become a popular way for communities, including those with disabilities to connect. However, even though social media seems to be everywhere, it’s not always accessible for everyone.
Some people might be reading this blog post right now, while others might be having it read to them by a screen-reader, using dark mode or other accessibility tools. Well, there are some simple things you can do when you’re posting on social media to make sure your content is as accessible as possible to everyone.
Living like The New Joneses
Less Keeping up, more slowing down
In 2019, Belong became Climate Active-certified. That meant making a promise to offset the greenhouse gas emissions we – and our products and services – produced.
It was around that time that we linked up with The New Joneses – the Aussie project teaching us all how to take it a little easier on the planet.
And while our Climate Active certification ended in 2024 (when we shifted our focus to reducing emissions instead), these pro-planet tips The New Joneses shared with us have absolutely stuck around.
Scam calls: how to sniff out a fake
It’s an all too common scenario.
The phone rings. You answer. You’re told that you’ve been overcharged for your phone bill. You’re going to be refunded $200! All the caller needs are your bank account details, and that money will be sent your way.
Hopefully, you realise that this call seems a little fishy and hang up, but it’s easy to feel unsure about what’s going on.
Reflecting on two years as Australia’s first carbon neutral telco
How we got there, and why we’re changing course in 2024.
In December 2019, our mobile and broadband services were certified by Active. This meant we calculated their greenhouse gas emissions, then offset them by paying for activities that prevent, reduce, or remove emissions.
Since then, a lot has changed – even if we’re just talking about climate action. A lot more companies are getting involved and doing the work they need to do to reduce their impact on the planet.
It feels like there’s real momentum to do the right thing by the planet. That makes it a great time to look at what we’ve learned since getting certified and what we need to do next.
It feels good to BE Proud at Pride
Now in its third year, BE Proud is one of four employee groups at Belong. Each group provides a platform and a voice to our communities and helps to include, engage and educate our wider Belong team.
It’s reassuring to know that Belong goes beyond encouraging people to bring their full self to work, but in fact celebrates it and supports each team member.
How to use your mobile for good
On average, we spend around 3 hours each day gazing into our pocket-sized super-screens. That’s around 21 hours a week, which equates to a part-time job. Congrats, you’ve just been hired.
Here are a few ways you can make the most of those hours and make your mobile a force for good!
