UK's Rishi Sunak faces criticism for misusing Twitter's Alt Text feature

London, United Kingdom

United Kingdom's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is facing criticism online for misusing the feature of alt text on Twitter.

Sunak shared a four-picture photo grid on Wednesday which showed cabinet members having a meeting. When a user clicks the images, each of them expands to reveal various things that the government claims to have done.

“We are working day-in and day-out to grow the economy,” wrote Sunak in the caption of the social media post. The alt text field, in which the description is added to make the blind users understand what is present in the image, simply read: “We're growing the economy”.

For people who are unaware, alt text is the way in which images are made more accessible to those who have lost their eyesight or are visually impaired. The feature is generally used by social media users to describe the central information and key details in a photo or graphic.

According to the Help Center article on Twitter, the aim of writing descriptions of images is to be concise and clear, while providing more context to the tweet.

“It's important to capture the action, movement, relationships, noteworthiness, visual details, and anything unique,” it stated. It should be noted that this accessibility feature also works with screen readers.

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However, even though the photos tweeted by Sunak expanded and revealed the list of things which were done by the government, the same information did not appear in the alt text.

Because of this, Sunak received backlash from social media users who criticised him for not adding a full description of the images.

The approach of the government to the accessibility feature was criticised by charities representing blind people such as the Royal National Institute for Blind (RNIB).

'Worst alt text I've ever seen', say Twitteratis

Responding to Sunak's tweet, RNIB tweeted a video demonstration of what the images shared sounded like to blind people who used a screen reader.

Other Twitter account holders, which included author Adam Kay, described the misuse of the feature by Sunak as “the worst alt text I've ever seen”.

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“Shame on whoever is running the @RishiSunak account. Absolute insult to visually impaired people the way you've abused the alt text field,” another user wrote.

Meanwhile, BBC published a statement released by Downing Street which stated, “We use a broad range of methods and channels to communicate with the public and aim to ensure that they are as accessible as possible. That includes using alternative text on our social channels”.

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