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

CAPTCHACompletely 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

Accesskeys15 accesskeys for all major site functions

These are rarely used. They have potential to conflict with assistive technology.

TabindexMost 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 TextA 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 APIThe 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 forAccessibility

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 forAccessibility

Provide context

Jared Smith is presenting at tweetupvs.

@jared_w_smith is presenting at CSUN tweetup - http://csuntweetup.com/ #csun09

Provide context to @replies for those that follow only you.

Optimizing Tweets forAccessibility

Use full URLs... unless you can’t

http://webaim.org vs. http://is.gd/nRoE

Optimizing Tweets forAccessibility

Be careful with abbreviations and language

fwiw, I srsly <3 this kewl a11y tweetup. oktnxbai.

This is unintelligible in a screen reader

Twitter AccessibilityThere’s not one right way to use

Twitter, so make it your own

Twitter Accessibility

Jared Smith@jared_w_smith

webaim.org