<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">I do not Tweet but thought this might be useful to those that do.<div><br></div><div><h1 class="gmail-mt-4 gmail-header-100 gmail-max-w-5xl" style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box;margin:1rem 0px 0px;font-size:2.25rem;line-height:1.5;max-width:64rem;color:rgb(10,24,41);font-family:hero-new,Tahoma,Geneva,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,"Segoe UI",Roboto,"Helvetica Neue",Arial,"Noto Sans",sans-serif,"Apple Color Emoji","Segoe UI Emoji","Segoe UI Symbol","Noto Color Emoji"">How to use Twitter's new and improved alt text tools</h1></div><div><div class="gmail-mt-2 gmail-leading-normal gmail-text-xl gmail-max-w-5xl" style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0.5rem;max-width:64rem;line-height:1.5;font-size:1.25rem;color:rgb(10,24,41);font-family:hero-new,Tahoma,Geneva,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,"Segoe UI",Roboto,"Helvetica Neue",Arial,"Noto Sans",sans-serif,"Apple Color Emoji","Segoe UI Emoji","Segoe UI Symbol","Noto Color Emoji"">It's not perfect, but it's a huge step forward.</div><div class="gmail-w-full gmail-subtitle-2 gmail-mt-8 gmail-text-left gmail-md:flex gmail-md:flex-wrap gmail-md:items-baseline gmail-md:space-x-8" style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box;font-size:0.75rem;line-height:1.5;margin-top:2rem;width:1248px;display:flex;color:rgb(10,24,41);font-family:hero-new,Tahoma,Geneva,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,"Segoe UI",Roboto,"Helvetica Neue",Arial,"Noto Sans",sans-serif,"Apple Color Emoji","Segoe UI Emoji","Segoe UI Symbol","Noto Color Emoji""><div style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box">By <a href="https://mashable.com/author/chase-dibenedetto" class="gmail-underline-link" style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box">Chase DiBenedetto</a>  on April 8, 2022</div><div style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box"><br></div></div></div><div><p style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box;margin:2rem auto 0px;font-size:1.25rem;line-height:2rem;max-width:48rem;width:768px;color:rgb(10,24,41);font-family:utopia-std,Georgia,Cambria,"Times New Roman",Times,serif">Twitter has addressed a long-awaited accessibility fix this week with its new and improved alternative text tools for users with and without disabilities.</p><p style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box;margin:2rem auto 0px;font-size:1.25rem;line-height:2rem;max-width:48rem;width:768px;color:rgb(10,24,41);font-family:utopia-std,Georgia,Cambria,"Times New Roman",Times,serif">The rollout hopes to make it <a href="https://9to5mac.com/2022/04/08/twitter-accessibility-improved-image-descriptions/" style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box">more obvious to all users that accessible image descriptions are present</a>, including an automatic, public badge on all tweets containing images with alt text — you'll now see a small black icon with the acronym "ALT" in the bottom left corner of an image. After tapping on the badge, users can view exposed image descriptions that can be read without the use of a screen reader, the tried and true "inspect element," or other adaptive tools.</p><p style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box;margin:2rem auto 0px;font-size:1.25rem;line-height:2rem;max-width:48rem;width:768px;color:rgb(10,24,41);font-family:utopia-std,Georgia,Cambria,"Times New Roman",Times,serif"><span style="font-size:20px">Previously, it wasn't clear if an image had alt text on the user-facing side of the website, only visible to users of assistive tools. The change makes it so everyone can see descriptions, which means more people are able to engage with the millions of images and GIF's posted to Twitter. It'll hopefully encourage more people make their own profiles accessible, as well.</span><br></p><p style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box;margin:2rem auto 0px;font-size:1.25rem;line-height:2rem;max-width:48rem;width:768px;color:rgb(10,24,41);font-family:utopia-std,Georgia,Cambria,"Times New Roman",Times,serif"><span style="font-size:20px">Twitter announced that it was working on the feature in </span><a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/9/22969304/twitter-image-description-alt-text-test-accessibility" style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box;font-size:20px">early March</a><span style="font-size:20px">, using the last month to beta test the tools with select users. The official update rolled out globally on April 7. Users have asked for better image descriptions </span><a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/9/22969304/twitter-image-description-alt-text-test-accessibility" style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box;font-size:20px">for years</a><span style="font-size:20px"> — the social media company added alt text for website </span><a href="https://www.lireo.com/what-to-know-twitter-alternative-text-images/" style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box;font-size:20px">images in 2016</a><span style="font-size:20px"> and </span><a href="https://9to5mac.com/2018/07/03/tweetdeck-image-descriptions/" style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box;font-size:20px">TweetDeck in 2018</a><span style="font-size:20px">, and it's slowly improved other accessibility features since, eventually creating a </span><a href="https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/accessibility-features" style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box;font-size:20px">dedicated accessibility team in 2020</a><span style="font-size:20px">. Alt text joins </span><a href="https://help.twitter.com/en/resources/accessibility" style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box;font-size:20px">other Twitter accessibility features</a><span style="font-size:20px"> like live automated captions for videos and voice tweets, as well as visual settings like high contrast and font size.</span><span style="font-size:20px"><br></span></p><p style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box;margin:2rem auto 0px;font-size:1.25rem;line-height:2rem;max-width:48rem;width:768px;color:rgb(10,24,41);font-family:utopia-std,Georgia,Cambria,"Times New Roman",Times,serif">According to the feature's <a href="https://twitter.com/TwitterA11y/status/1501603791447207940?s=20&t=kOUwjOHa293Uz0M8r9N0qg" style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box">initial announcement</a>, Twitter is also working on an automatic reminder for app users. "Adding image descriptions allows people who are blind, have low vision, use assistive tech, live in low-bandwidth areas, or have a cognitive disability, to fully contribute on Twitter," the company tweeted. "We know these features have been a long time coming, and we're grateful for your patience."</p><h2 style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box;margin:2rem auto 0px;font-size:1.875rem;line-height:2.25rem;font-family:hero-new,Tahoma,Geneva,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,"Segoe UI",Roboto,"Helvetica Neue",Arial,"Noto Sans",sans-serif,"Apple Color Emoji","Segoe UI Emoji","Segoe UI Symbol","Noto Color Emoji";max-width:48rem;width:768px;color:rgb(10,24,41)">How to use the new features</h2><p style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box;margin:2rem auto 0px;font-size:1.25rem;line-height:2rem;max-width:48rem;width:768px;color:rgb(10,24,41);font-family:utopia-std,Georgia,Cambria,"Times New Roman",Times,serif">The alt text badge and public descriptions are automatically available to users, so you don't need to do anything to your account to interact with the new tools — just make sure your app is up-to-date.</p><p style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box;margin:2rem auto 0px;font-size:1.25rem;line-height:2rem;max-width:48rem;width:768px;color:rgb(10,24,41);font-family:utopia-std,Georgia,Cambria,"Times New Roman",Times,serif">There is one barrier to usability: individual users have to have the due diligence to add alt text to every post with an image or GIF they make.</p><h3 style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box;margin:2rem auto 0px;font-size:1.5rem;font-weight:400;font-family:hero-new,Tahoma,Geneva,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,"Segoe UI",Roboto,"Helvetica Neue",Arial,"Noto Sans",sans-serif,"Apple Color Emoji","Segoe UI Emoji","Segoe UI Symbol","Noto Color Emoji";max-width:48rem;width:768px;line-height:1.5;color:rgb(10,24,41)">Adding image or GIF descriptions to your own tweets</h3><p style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box;margin:2rem auto 0px;font-size:1.25rem;line-height:2rem;max-width:48rem;width:768px;color:rgb(10,24,41);font-family:utopia-std,Georgia,Cambria,"Times New Roman",Times,serif">First, click the compose tweet button and draft your post with your preferred media, whether that's an image or a GIF (videos posted to Twitter are currently <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/news/twitter-now-auto-captions-videos" style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box">auto-captioned</a>).</p><p style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box;margin:2rem auto 0px;font-size:1.25rem;line-height:2rem;max-width:48rem;width:768px;color:rgb(10,24,41);font-family:utopia-std,Georgia,Cambria,"Times New Roman",Times,serif">For mobile users: Once added, click on the small, black circle in the bottom right corner with the "ALT" tag.</p><p style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box;margin:2rem auto 0px;font-size:1.25rem;line-height:2rem;max-width:48rem;width:768px;color:rgb(10,24,41);font-family:utopia-std,Georgia,Cambria,"Times New Roman",Times,serif">For desktop users: Select "Add Description" below the image. Or, click on the "Edit" button on the bottom right of the photo, and then go to the "alt text" section.</p><p style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;box-sizing:border-box;margin:2rem auto 0px;font-size:1.25rem;line-height:2rem;max-width:48rem;width:768px;color:rgb(10,24,41);font-family:utopia-std,Georgia,Cambria,"Times New Roman",Times,serif"><a href="https://mashable.com/article/twitter-alt-text-accesibility-update">Twitter adds updated alt text feature in new accessibility upgrade (mashable.com)</a><br></p></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br clear="all"><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><font face="comic sans ms,sans-serif">Beth Greenberg</font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>