Thread by @NalaWu

Hello friends! Here’s something small you can do to make Twitter more #Accessible! Adding ‘ALT text’ to your posts is SUPER HELPFUL (but isn’t automatically turned on in settings 🙃)

Here’s STEP BY STEP instructions for how to turn on Image Descriptions!

#accessibility #Thread

Click on your profile icon and go to ‘settings and privacy’

Next, click on “accessibility” and then turn on “compose image descriptions”

Cool! Now they’re on!

But how do they work?? And why should i use them? Well, I have a meme I want to show ppl. I go to compose a tweet saying “look at this it’s so funny” & insert the image.

Screenreaders will simply read “look at this it’s so funny. image” and nothing more.

Any joke, punchline, information, or other images are completely lost in translation. “Image” could mean ANYTHING. Is it a dog? A Chair? An ‘Into the woods’ reference??

Here’s where ALT text/image descriptions come in handy.

So I have a great meme. I want to share this meme.

Once your ALT text is turned on, there will be a prompt in the bottom asking you to “add description”

Click it!

It’ll lead to text box where you can use up to 400 something (i can’t remember the exact number) characters to describe your picture. Then, click “apply” in the upper right corner (circled in red).

Try to be as descriptive as possible while staying on topic.

ALT text isn’t a place for irrelevant jokes or memes. Just describe the picture. Even something as simple as “selfie” will help enhance Blind peoples’ experiences on this app!

After all, if you’re a content creator and you’re not making your content accessible, you’re essentially blocking out an entire group of people from consuming your content, and that’s not very good!

ADDITIONALLY— GIFs are also inaccessible for blind ppl, but ALT text doesn’t work for them. It’s helpful to include a description of the GIF either in the tweet or in a tweet reply underneath the GIF! If you follow me, you’ll notice I do this for all the gifs I post!

While I’m here, here’s some more tips for #TwitterAccessibility
A simple thing you can do is to capitalize each beginning letter in a tag with more than one word. See above. #twitteraccessibility confuses screenreaders, which will try to read it as 1 word. #DoThis! #notthis :)

Also, any tweets that arrange emojis around words, or just random characters (like the “in this house we respect ____”), or otherwise have tons of emojis in them (the clapping hands between every word)— this all is inaccessible because screen readers will READ EVERY EMOJI.

There’s videos out there showing people what it sounds like. Basically the entire tweet’s meaning is lost, and they’re not fun to sit through. So try not to rt them/compose tweets in this format. If you have to, consider adding a “tweet description” in a QRT.

Similarly, when people space letters out for emphasis:

E m p h a s i s

Screenreaders will read every letter by itself. Again, joke is LOST. Meaning is LOST.

(Also the clapping hands meme is AAVE, so you shouldn’t even be using it if you’re not black haha)

Emphasis can similarly be achieved in these ways:

Capitalizing The First Letter For Emphasis
#using #hashtags #for #emphasis
ALL CAPS FOR EMPHASIS

Also! If you shift from lowercase to uppercase within the same word, it also trips screenreaders up.

LiKE I gET it shOWS EXCITEMENT!!!! But the same effect is achieved with all caps for one word: like I get it SHOWS EXCITEMENT!!!

AlsO thIs spOngEbOb mEmE iS aBleIsT

Pls stop

Ok, that’s about all from me for now! If you learned something consider RTing this! I may add more on if I think of things. But ye!

If you are blind/#disabled and have something to add / correct me on my bullshit, please let me know! That’s all!

Jae out ✌🏽

Oh!! I almost forgot!! Wanted to give a quick shoutout to @D8bitGaming for being the person to show me ALT text in the first place!!! Thanks Abi ❤️❤️

https://twitter.com/twittera11y/status/1223327477948243968?s=21

I stand corrected!! ALT TXT coming to gifs near you (if you tweet from twitter dot com— idk if that means on PC only???)

But ! Regardless— news! https://t.co/i3xPpFN56M