Twitter said Thursday that its ALT badge and enhanced image descriptions are now accessible globally, enhancing the visibility of alt text descriptions for all users. Images with text descriptions will display a “alt” badge, which when clicked will display the description. Twitter initially revealed the adjustments last month.
“As promised, today marks the global launch of the ALT badge and exposed picture descriptions,” says a tweet from Twitter’s Accessibility account. “Over the last month, we’ve worked on problem fixes and received input from members of the restricted release group. We are prepared. You are prepared. Let us begin by describing our images!”
Twitter provided step-by-step instructions for how to add the image descriptions in a blog post:
- After uploading an image to a tweet, select Add description underneath the image
- Enter a description of the image in the text box. The character count is in the corner of the box; you have 1,000 characters available
- Click Save, and an ALT badge will appear in the corner of the image
- Tweet. If someone clicks on the ALT badge, the description should appear on-screen
Prior to Thursday’s update, the majority of users did not have access to alt text descriptions unless they were using screen readers. Twitter added picture captions in 2016, but they might be difficult to identify and add. The organisation did not have a dedicated accessibility team until late 2020, with employees offering their time to work on accessibility concerns.
