Day 226

Let users add alt text when sharing

1 Jan 2023

If your app lets the user share images, consider implementing the possibility for them to add an alt text for the image, so it can be used as an accessibility label when consumed by other users. Twitter or Slack have nice flows for doing this.

The Twitter app is open. It shows how when adding an image in the tweet composing screen, there is a button to alt text that opens another screen that lets you write a description of up to 1000 characters. Then, if a tweet has an image with alt text, it shows an ALT badge in the bottom left corner that can be selected to open a bottom sheet with the image's alt text.

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You may also find interesting...

Buttons with a title, use it as its default accessibility label. Most cases, that's just perfect. But there's a few times that you might want to tweak it. Maybe the image is part of what the button does, or the text in the title is not very clear.

Images should either be decorative or have a proper accessibility label or alt text that describes them. If they're decorative you can make it so they get skipped by assistive tech so it doesn't get in the way of the experience.

Grouping elements with .accessibility(children: .combine) doesn't always generate the best accessibility label. Comma-separating labels might sometimes not be ideal. But you can improve it by tweaking the labels/grouping of its children first.


Content © Daniel Devesa Derksen-Staats on Accessibility up to 11! is licensed under CC BY 4.0. License details