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Twitter Images Now Accessible to Visually Impaired People

Twitter images

New Features in Twitter Images

Internet offers a great wealth of information and knowledge but some people don’t have access to that information. Twitter has made the initiative to help those with visual impairments to be a part of Twitter. It has made Twitter images accessible to people who are visually impaired.

Twitter is now allowing users to add descriptions to images called as “alt text” using Android or iOS version of the app. This will allow people to take advantage of assistive technology including text-to-speech screen readers and Braille displays. This helps the visually impaired to get a sense of what the image is about.

Here Are The Steps To Do It:

  • Download the latest version of Android or iOS app
  • To use this new feature, head to app’s accessibility settings
  • Enable the option that says “compose image description”.
  • When this is turned on, you will be able to add a text description.
  • Add an image and click “add description” button
  • You can add a description of up to 420 characters
  • That’s all!

Twitter images

The company has also extended the ability to add alt text to Twitter images to both REST API and Twitter Cards. This feature can be used for its users as well as third-party clients will also be able to take its advantage.

When Twitter was first launched in the year 2006, it was only a text-only service and was accessible to the visually impaired. Then, Twitter has added support for a range of different media but not support for alternative text until now. The company has been experimenting with a number of changes such as idea to removing character limitations etc. The newly added feature could be certainly useful for publishers even if the users won’t take out time to type in descriptions.

What are your thoughts about this initiative by Twitter? Share with us in the comments.

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