Creating usable website solutions
This post was originally published on March 30, 2016
When Twitter announced alternative text for images in early 2016, the web accessibility community was abuzz with conversations.
The long-awaited option, providing the option to add alternative text to images, was greeted with loud approval from Twitter users looking for better web accessibility for the popular social media channel.
I know, I was one of them! Continue reading 10 Things to Know About Twitter’s Alternative Text for Images
Originally published on June 4, 2018
When I was chatting with one of my friends this week about alternative text for images, I asked them if they knew they could add alt text to images on Facebook.
They replied they didn’t know.
I wasn’t surprised. Though the feature has been out for two years, not many people know about it.
Which is why two years ago, I conducted a poll asking followers on Twitter and Facebook whether they added alternative text (alt text) to the photos they post on Facebook.
Every person who responded to the poll said they didn’t know they could.
If you share images on Facebook, do you add alternative text to the image?
— Deborah Edwards-Onoro (@redcrew) May 30, 2018
I’ve never understood why Facebook didn’t promote their new feature for alternative text. It’s something many people had been asking for over the years.
Certainly it didn’t receive the wide publicity that happened when Twitter announced the alternative text feature for images a couple of years prior.
To teach people about the new feature, I published this post with how-to’s for adding alternative text to images in Facebook.
Almost two years later, and given my friend didn’t know about Facebook’s alternative text feature, I decided it was time to repeat the poll. Continue reading How to Add Alternative Text to Facebook Photos
Note: as of late August 2019, LinkedIn may automatically add alt text to images. Check their alt text online help for more details.
Yesterday, I had a chat about alternative text for images with my Twitter colleague Stanford Griffin.
He asked about managing alternative text for images in Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Hey, my #a11y friends. How do you handle #alttext in #socialmedia? #Twitter is easy (Thank you @TwitterA11y), but what about for #Facebook, #Instagram, and #LinkedIn? I’ve just been writing in a description at the bottom of each post. #accessbility
— Stanford Griffith (@StanfordAlan) February 26, 2019
We talked about how Buffer and Hootsuite offered support for alternative text for images in Twitter.
We spoke about adding alternative text for images in Instagram.
And then we started talking about LinkedIn’s alternative text for images.
Similar to Facebook who added alternative text last year, LinkedIn added the alternative text feature but didn’t announce it.
I don’t understand why neither social media company didn’t announce the highly requested feature to their users.
Which reminded me, I’ve been putting off publishing a tutorial about LinkedIn’s alternative text. Here it is! Continue reading How to Add Alternative Text to LinkedIn Images