Twitter rolls out ALT badges, exposed image descriptions for everybody
Earlier this week, Twitter rolled out ALT badges and exposed image descriptions globally. The social media platform has been working on the same for over a month, revealed a new tweet announcing the change.
“Over the past month, we fixed bugs and gathered feedback from the limited release group,” Twitter said in the tweet.
Check out the tweet below.
As promised, the ALT badge and exposed image descriptions go global today.
Over the past month, we fixed bugs and gathered feedback from the limited release group. We’re ready. You’re ready. Let’s describe our images! Here’s how: https://t.co/bkJmhRpZPg https://t.co/ep1ireBJGt
— Twitter Accessibility (@TwitterA11y) April 7, 2022
The change was rolled out to three percent of Android, iOS and web users as a test feature last month. “We’ve gotten a lot of feedback about how to improve the image description (or alt text) experience on Twitter,” the platform had said announcing the test feature on March 9 this year.
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 to 3% of Twitter across Android, iOS, and Web: the public ALT badge and exposed image descriptions. 🧵 (1 of 6) pic.twitter.com/HCYzIYEdal
— Twitter Accessibility (@TwitterA11y) March 9, 2022
ALT badges let users know if a particular image has alternate text, which is an accessibility feature for users who use screen readers and speech-to-text. With ALT badges, it will be easier for users to quickly decipher which images have alt text.
As seen in the embedded image above, the badge itself will be visible on the bottom-left corner. It will be a black rectangle with the letters A-L-T in white over it. To check the Alt text, all users need to do is hover over an image to know more about it.
These Alt text elements are user generated and will need to be manually input for every individual image. Twitter has also shared a new guide that will help users on getting started with adding Alt text. Descriptions can also be added to retweeted images.
