Twitter's new feature helps visually impaired know what a picture is about

In a move to make online content, especially pictures, accessible to everyone, Twitter Tuesday announced a feature that will help the visually impaired know what a picture is about through description. The new feature will enable the visually impaired to have an idea of a picture even though they can't see.

The micro-blogging site now allows users to add description to pictures they share, which will help people using assistive technology to know what it is about though they won't be able to know the details.

"Starting today (Wednesday), people using our iOS and Android apps can add descriptions -- also known as alternative text (alt text) -- to images in Tweets. With this update, we're empowering everyone to ensure content shared on Twitter is accessible to the widest possible audience," stated Twitter in a blog post. 

This new feature in Twitter's iOS and Android applications can be enabled by going to accessibility settings wherein a user can add description (up to 420 characters) to an image by tapping a button. This way, the visually impaired can have access to the description via their assistive technology like screen readers and braille displays.

Twitter also said that it has extended the ability of adding description with all text to both the REST API and Twitter Cards to ensure that publishers and third-party clients too have access to the feature.