Twitter has announced that it’s currently testing new accessibility features to make alt text descriptions way more useful and prominent for everyone on the platform. Images that have descriptions will be given a badge that says “alt,” and clicking on that badge will show the description.
The company is set to roll out the feature globally at the beginning of April but until then, only around 3 per cent of users will get to try out the new features for a month.
According to Twitter, users have waited a while for this functionality. Image descriptions were introduced in 2016, but they haven’t been particularly prominent on the platform.
“We know these features have been a long time coming, and we’re grateful for your patience. We’re also working on the image description reminder. We’ll share more on that soon. Until then, tell us what you think about the ALT badge and exposed image descriptions,” Twitter tweeted.
The thread also mentions that the accessibility team is also working on an “image description reminder,” which could help make alt text even more popular on the platform.
