Twitter is improving its accessibility features – but there's more work to be done

Twitter accessibility on iOS
(Image credit: TechRadar)

Accessibility is an important aspect of technology, and it's only in the last few years that companies have taken it seriously. That's why a new reminders feature from Twitter is great, but also strange in how it's being introduced to users.

Adding descriptions to images has been available on Twitter for a while. It allows someone with a visual impairment to read a small block of text explaining what the image is, from its colors to its location and more.

Seeing images on Twitter as you scroll through your feed is incredibly common. From memes to what people are currently doing, there's a bunch that some users can miss out on. 

So while this new feature will remind you to write up a description when you add an image to a tweet, it's baffling that it's arriving to users switched off.


Analysis: One step forward, one step back

Image accessibility description setting

(Image credit: Twitter)

The feature is currently appearing to 10% of Twitter's overall users on iOS and Android, and if you're lucky to be in this group, you can go to Settings > Accessibility, display and languages > Accessibility and the reminder will show toward the bottom so you can switch it on.

However, this aspect feels backward. There should be a default reminder when adding an image – even just a few words to say what the image is can be enough for a lot of users with a visual disability.

In fairness, Instagram and Facebook have the ability to add image descriptions, but there are no reminders to add them in these apps at all. 

There's been encouraging steps from Meta and Twitter in accessibility as a whole, but reminders should be a universal feature that's on by default, not the other way round.

Daryl Baxter
Software & Downloads Writer

Daryl had been freelancing for 3 years before joining TechRadar, now reporting on everything software-related. In his spare time, he's written a book, 'The Making of Tomb Raider'. His second book, '50 Years of Boss Fights', came out in 2024, with a third book coming in 2026. He also has a newsletter called 'Springboard'. He's usually found playing games old and new on his Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, and MacBook Pro. If you have a story about an updated app, one that's about to launch, or just anything Software-related, drop him a line.

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