Hey, are you including alt textual content captions to your uploaded photographs on Twitter?
You ought to be, and now, Twitter’s going to immediate you to do precisely that, with new pop-ups being proven to some customers alerting them to the advantages of other textual content summaries inside tweets.
As you possibly can see on this alert, Twitter’s trying to get extra customers to think about including alt-text, by offering an explainer on why textual content descriptions of photographs are vital, and the way they may help extra individuals interact with their content material.
Textual content descriptions are a key software for visually impaired customers, with display screen readers in a position to talk these descriptions so as to add related context. Twitter customers are ready so as to add textual content descriptions to any uploaded picture or GIF, however it requires guide effort – therefore these new prompts.
Twitter’s been working to enhance its different textual content descriptions for a while, as a part of its broader efforts to enhance accessibility within the app.
Twitter added a devoted ‘+ALT’ button, displayed on the picture itself, again in 2020, with a view to encourage extra consciousness of the choice. It up to date the function in March this yr, with a brand new ‘ALT’ badge now routinely added to pictures the place different textual content descriptions can be found.
Twitter’s additionally expanded its textual content description window to make them extra accessible.
Together, these have put considerably extra give attention to alt textual content for tweeted photographs, although Twitter might go additional, by including auto-generated textual content descriptions the place alt textual content content material shouldn’t be accessible for a picture.
That’s what Fb now makes use of, with its Automated Alt Textual content (AAT) course of facilitating the identification of objects inside posted photographs by way of machine studying course of.
It’s not excellent, however it helps to offer a greater expertise – and fairly than hoping that customers will add their very own data when prompted, it ensures that there will likely be textual content descriptions accessible for all content material.
Twitter’s prompts might assist to offer extra correct descriptions (possibly), however they received’t be accessible at scale, as customers can simply ignore the prompts and transfer on.
Perhaps, the subsequent stage then is to maneuver into line with Meta’s strategy, in using automated object identification, which may even have expanded advantages in a spread of further functions and processes.
Whether or not that’s a spotlight for Twitter or not is difficult to say, as nobody actually is aware of what the important thing developmental technique for the app will likely be shifting ahead, given the present possession confusion.
But when Twitter desires to take its accessibility instruments to the subsequent stage, this looks like the apparent step.
Twitter’s new alt textual content prompts are being rolled out to a small group of customers on iOS, Android, and internet from right now. Twitter will increase the prompts to extra customers over the approaching weeks.
