Twitter has announced the limited release of two new features to improve the image description experience on the platform.
It is rolling out a public ‘Alt badge’ and exposed image descriptions.
“We’ve gotten a lot of feedback about how to improve the image description (or alt text) experience on Twitter. Today, we’re launching 2 features of Twitter across Android, iOS, and Web: the public ALT badge and exposed image descriptions,” Twitter wrote from its official Twitter accessibility account.
As the microblogging platform described in a post, “Image descriptions, also called alternative text, are an easy way to make Twitter accessible to people with disabilities.”
Users can add image descriptions to the images that they tweet.
Alternative text
“Describing what’s in your images benefits people who are blind, have low vision, use assistive technology, live in low-bandwidth areas, or want more context,” Twitter said.
After uploading an image to a Tweet, users can add a description through the +ALT button on the image. (“ALT” is the abbreviation for alternative text, which is the technical name for image description.)
The limited release of the two new features will last for about a month.
“During that time, we’ll gather feedback, work through bugs, and plan for global availability by the beginning of April,” it said.
If users have access to these features, a black rectangle with the white letters A L T, spelling ALT, will appear on images with an image description. This is also called alternative or alt text.
“We’ve used the 3-letter abbreviation as the image description symbol,” it said.
To view an image description, users can select the ALT badge and the description will open. They can close the same by selecting the Dismiss button, escape key, or clicking/tapping any spot outside the box.
“Adding image descriptions allows people who are blind, have low vision, use assistive tech, live in low-bandwidth areas, or have a cognitive disability, to fully contribute on Twitter,” the social media major said.
“We know these features have been a long time coming, and we’re grateful for your patience. We’re also working on the image description reminder. We’ll share more on that soon,” it added.