Twitter said that its ALT badge and improved image descriptions are now available globally accessibility qualities that will make alt text messages more prominent of all users. Images that have text descriptions will get a badge that reads alt and clicking on the badge will bring up the description. Twitter first announced changes were coming last month.
As promised the ALT badge and exposed image descriptions go global today. Reads a tweet from twitter is accessibility account. Over the past month we fixed bugs and gathered feedback from the limited release group. We are ready you are ready lets describe our images.
Before Thursday change most users did not necessarily have access to alt text descriptions unless using screen readers. Twitter first introduced image descriptions in 2016, but it could be hard to find where and how to add them. The company did not dedicated accessibility team until late 2020, with workers who wanted to work on accessibility issue volunteering their time.
Read More: Twitter is testing changes to make image descriptions easier to access
Twitter provided step by step instruction 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 1000 character available.
