Placeholder canvas
 
Close
Igniting Ideas For impact

Embarking on a transformative journey through six chapters, we traverse India's landscape, exploring pioneering startups and their revolutionary...

8 months

You Can Help Visually Impaired Twitter Users ‘See’ Your Pictures. Here’s How

In March 2016, Twitter announced a feature that allows users to caption their photographs before they share them.

You Can Help Visually Impaired Twitter Users ‘See’ Your Pictures. Here’s How

A core part of the web is inaccessible to a large chunk of visually impaired users. This is quite tragic especially at a time when most of the internet is dominated by visual content.

Millions of images, GIFs and screenshots are posted every day on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and our visually impaired folks miss out just because their screen-reading software is unable to ‘read’ images—something artificial intelligence is still not that good at yet. Such software is only helpful in so far as texts are concerned.

However, there is a way we can help them see these images.

Source: Flickr

Rob Long, a visually impaired Twitter user, recently posted about how the rest of us can reach people like him and help them interact with our pictures.

In March 2016, Twitter announced a feature that allows users to caption their photographs before they share them. Once the image is shared, the caption is what a visually impaired user’s screen reader will read each time it encounters a captioned photograph. However, a lot of users aren’t even aware that such a feature exists.

Users have to go into their Twitter account’s accessibility settings on their smartphones and switch it on. Rob has posted instruction on how users can do this:

Facebook also has this feature, but it uses automatic alternative (alt) text that uses object recognition technology to create a description of a photo, which cannot be edited. It is supported in various languages.

For this feature to work, every Twitter user has to get on board and enable it on their accounts. In fact big news organisations too should adopt features that help the visually impaired navigate better and make image captioning a mandatory effort.

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!

This story made me

  • feel inspired icon
    97
  • more aware icon
    121
  • better informative icon
    89
  • do something icon
    167

Tell Us More


We bring stories straight from the heart of India, to inspire millions and create a wave of impact. Our positive movement is growing bigger everyday, and we would love for you to join it.

Please contribute whatever you can, every little penny helps our team in bringing you more stories that support dreams and spread hope.

Support the biggest positivity movement section image Support the biggest positivity movement section image
Shorts

Shorts

See All
 
X
 
Sign in to get free benefits
  • Get positive stories daily on email
  • Join our community of positive ambassadors
  • Become a part of the positive movement