Twitter launches ALT badge: On Thursday, Twitter announced that the ALT badge and better image descriptions would be available to all worldwide users.
People who read The Verge say that Twitter first noted that changes were coming in March 2022. You can click on the badge that says “alt” to see the text description of a picture.
An Accessibility account tweet reads, “Today is the day that the ALT badge and image descriptions that show up when you click on them become global.”
“Over the last month, we worked to fix bugs and get feedback from the group that had a limited number of copies. We’re ready to go. You’re good to go. This is a good time to talk about our pictures.”
If you’re blind, have low vision, use assistive technology, live in a place with low bandwidth, or want more information, this ALT badge and image description can help.
Steps for adding ALT image descriptions to an image in a Tweet:
- After adding an image to a tweet, click the Add description button next to the image.
- Enter a picture description in the text box, but keep it to less than 1000 words.
- When you click, save, and ALT badge will show up at the corner of the picture.
- If someone sees your tweet, they will see an ALT badge with your image. When they click on it, they will see your image’s description pop up.
Image descriptions were first added to Twitter in 2016, but it could be hard to figure out where and how to add them to your posts.
Facebook didn’t have a dedicated accessibility team until late 2020 when workers who wanted to work on accessibility issues had to give up their time.
