Twitter Accessibility
Jared Smith
@jared_w_smith
webaim.org

Use #csun09 hashtag in conference tweets
Follow the tweets at csuntweetup.com

CAPTCHA
Required for registration

CAPTCHA
Completely Automated Public Turing
test to Confuse the Hell out of your Audience

Inaccessible Buttons
favorite (or ‘favourite’ for our Twittish
friends), reply, and delete ‘buttons’
are not keyboard accessible

Inaccessible Buttons
Focus Twitter Greasemonkey Script
for Firefox places buttons in tab order
- courtesy of Gez Lemon - juicystudio.com

Accesskeys
15 accesskeys for all major site functions
These are rarely used. They have potential to
conflict with assistive technology.

Tabindex
Most form elements are unnecessarily
assigned tabindex.
The default tab order is sufficient and
tabindex can be omitted.

Document Structure
Headings are used, but incorrectly structured

Alt Text
A few images are missing alt text (profile
images), have redundant alt text, or
inappropriate alt text (alt=”Icon_lock”)

In general, Twitter.com is a classic case of
web accessibility poorly implemented.

...but it would be very easy to fix.
It’s usable, but not optimal.

Twitter API
The API allows development of fully accessible
Twitter applications
(though most aren’t)
...but you still must sign up at twitter.com

Accessible Twitter
http://accessibletwitter.com/

Optimizing Tweets for
Accessibility
Use @replies, #hashtags, and dm’s
• @username replies to that user - though others can still
see it.
• #hashtag provides a searchable keyword (e.g., #csun09)
• dm username sends a direct message

Optimizing Tweets for
Accessibility
Provide context
Jared Smith is presenting at tweetup
vs.
@jared_w_smith is presenting at CSUN tweetup -
http://csuntweetup.com/ #csun09
Provide context to @replies for
those that follow only you.

Optimizing Tweets for
Accessibility
Use full URLs... unless you can’t
http://webaim.org vs. http://is.gd/nRoE

Optimizing Tweets for
Accessibility
Be careful with abbreviations and language
fwiw, I srsly <3 this kewl a11y tweetup. oktnxbai.
This is unintelligible in a screen reader

Twitter Accessibility
There’s not one right way to use
Twitter, so make it your own

Twitter Accessibility
Jared Smith
@jared_w_smith
webaim.org