digital guidance

Types of Bad Accessibility Excuses

Per Axbom

May 4, 2021

I love a good meme and have been looking through many of the different versions of the "Types of Scientific Paper" meme on Twitter. Not a single one I've come across has had an image description in the form of ALT (alternative) text. Unfortunately this is really common when it comes to image-based memes, and renders them inaccessible to a great number of people.

I know it's far from common knowledge how to add descriptive text to images on Twitter. I'm not putting blame on anyone. I do, however, see this as an opportunity to share knowledge on accessible images. Of course I couldn't resist making my own version of the meme alluding to this topic. I also know there are circles of people upset, and rightly so, about being excluded from the content in these images.

To provide more value in this post, I have supplied a complete image description in plain text below the image. This text can be used as a template for anyone posting versions of memes like this online. And further down the post I explain where you add this text for an image on Twitter.

Here is my version of the meme:

Types of Poor Accessibility Paper. Image described in post below.

Image description

Twelve imagined research paper headlines placed in a 3 by 4 grid, sketched in the form of symbolic cover pages.

The image title is: Types of Poor Accessibility Paper

In order from left to right, row by row from the top, the headlines are:

Nobody else does it
There is just not enough time to add ALT text
The audience is too small
We added it to the backlog
Shouldn't we just build an AI to do this?
We can't really afford it
Disabled people don't use the Internet
People with a disability wouldn't understand anyway
Really, disabled people use the Internet?
Our target group has no disabilities
The tool doesn't allow it
Lighten up, it's just a meme

Alongside the edge of the image is written: "Pastiche by @axbom, inspired by xkcd.com/2456/ and its many memes. Full post on axbom.com/memeaccess/"

Add ALT text to images on Twitter

The ability to add image descriptions is available by default on Twitter since May 2020. Before that you had to turn it on manually.

Start composing a Tweet and add an image.
If you are on mobile, locate the circular "ALT" button that is visible on the image and press it. Skip to step 4.
On desktop, locate the link "Add description" under the image, and click it.
Write the image description. 1,000 characters are allowed. Focus on making it relevant for what is being communicated in the image. This will take practice to get right, so today is good day to start.
Click "Done", triple check your tweet and send it out into to the world, content with the knowledge that its content will be available to more people.

Here are two images that indicate with arrows where the button and link are in steps 2 and 3, respectively.

Two iPhones. The first one displays a tweet being composed with an imge and an arrow pointing to ALT button, labelled with "Tap here to add image description." The second one displays the same tweet where an image description is being added. An arrow points to the description, labelled "Example of image description".

Screenshot from twitter.com where a tweet is being composed with an image. An arrow points to the link "Add description" and is labelled with "Tap here to add description"

I'll end by recommending this fantastic guide by Daniel Göransson, a web developer with vision impairment, that teaches how to write good image descriptions: Alt-texts: The Ultimate Guide.

Bonus tip: If you are not using a screen reader or don't know how to use the inspector, you can use Adrian Roselli's bookmarklet to show Twitter Image Alt Text in the browser. Drag and drop the link on that page to your browser bookmarks. Then, when viewing a tweet with an image, click that link to see the Alt text.