Twitter has released a new feature to improve alt text visibility on its platform. The feature focuses on the ability for users to view alt text without a screen reader by adding an ‘alt tag’, which can be clicked to view the alt text present.
The black ‘ALT’ tag can be found in the bottom right corner of an image, and when clicked a box pops up displaying the alt text that the tweeter has added. The addition of this tag makes the presence of alt text more noticeable for non-assistive technology users, as it is present on all images that have alt text.
For mobile users, alt text can be added by drafting the tweet with the photo or gif, then tapping on the circle labelled ‘ALT’ found in the bottom right corner of the image, and then typing in the image description.
Desktop users can either click the ‘Add Description’ button underneath the drafted image, or select the ‘Edit’ option and then access the ‘alt text’ section.
After being typed, alt text can be finalised with the ‘done’ button, allowing the user to view the finished alt text description.
For people wanting to make their content more accessible by retweeting content with alt text, this tag makes that possible without the use of a screen-reader. However, it is not yet possible to add alt text for already posted tweets as an ‘edit’ option is still in the works.