The features being tested make it obvious if alt text is available. | Image: Twitter

Twitter has announced that itโ€™s testing new accessibility features to make alt text descriptions significantly more useful and prominent for everyone on the platform. With the change, images that have descriptions will be given a badge that says โ€œalt,โ€ and clicking on that badge will show the description. The change has been a long time coming, but thatโ€™s not necessarily a surprise โ€” Twitter didnโ€™t have a dedicated accessibility team until 2020.

According to Twitter, around 3 percent of users will get to try out the new features for a month, and itโ€™ll roll out globally at the beginning of April. Until then, it seems like most people still wonโ€™t have access to alt text descriptions unless theyโ€™re using a screen reader or are willing to jump through a lot of hoops.

On an account without the new features, itโ€™s difficult to access alt text without a screen reader.

On an account with the features, itโ€™s as easy as clicking a box.

As Twitter notes at the end of its thread, users have waited a while for this functionality. Image descriptions were introduced in 2016, but they havenโ€™t been particularly prominent on the platform โ€” itโ€™s relatively easy to miss the button that lets you add one. That may be because of how Twitter handled accessibility features in the past. Up until late 2020, employees had to volunteer to work on them alongside their regular jobs, and there wasnโ€™t a team dedicated to making Twitter easier to use for those who needed it most. Since the teamโ€™s creation, Twitter has added live captions to voice tweets and videos.

We know these features have been a long time coming, and we’re grateful for your patience. Weโ€™re also working on the image description reminder. Weโ€™ll share more on that soon.

Until then, tell us what you think about the ALT badge and exposed image descriptions. (6 of 6)

โ€” Twitter Accessibility (@TwitterA11y) March 9, 2022

Itโ€™s possible that making it obvious when an image has alt text could make the feature more popular โ€” if people can clearly see which pictures do and donโ€™t have it, they may think to add it next time they post one. Twitterโ€™s thread mentions that the accessibility team (which thankfully exists now) is also working on an โ€œimage description reminder,โ€ which could help make alt text even more popular on the platform.

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