Twitter Adds Image Captioning Feature For Visually Impaired Users

Twitter was once a text-driven social sharing platform that has, in a short decade, become a center of both text and visual-based media and graphics.

But after image captioning was voted the fourth most-requested feature at a Twitter conference for developers last year, it became clear that the site’s evolution was leaving some people out of the full social media experience. That’s why the site has decided to make its interface more accessible by adding a brand new captioning feature.

Users will now be able to add 420-character image captions to photos they tweet. On Tuesday, Twitter announced the addition of the feature, which won’t come as an automatic update, but can be enabled through your account’s accessibility settings. Andriod and iOS app users will have access to this caption enabling or alternative text to help those with visual impairments interact with the visual content being shared.

Twitter has also extended their platform products to both the REST API and Twitter Cards, allowing publishers and third-party apps to enable captioned imaging, as well.