I can hear Chrissie and Keith (Senior Adviser and Technical Adviser) tut, tutting at me for even flagging up software in Alpha; but here goes anyway.

Twitter has emerged as one of the world’s most widely used social networking services.

Twitter’s appeal lies in...

  • its simplicity, and
  • the way it fosters a sense of immediacy.

Communication on Twitter must be brief and to the point, because “tweets” are limited to 140 characters; it doesn’t have to take up a great deal of time. The power of sharing on Twitter is enormous.

I've been informed that accessibility is a major problem with Twitter. That’s one of the reasons why Dennis Lembree has created Accessible Twitter. The Accessible Twitter interface possibly benefits blind users more than any other identifiable group.

Accessible Twitter can enhance accessibility for a wide range of Twitter users.

Although still in “Alpha”, Accessible Twitter has functioned OK for me without any glitches.

The accessibility features, highlighted on the website, are:

  • All links are keyboard accessible.
  • DM, Favourite, Reply, Re-tweet, and Delete links are all visible by default.
  • Simple, consistent layout and navigation (and signed-in username always displayed).
  • Headings and page titles are implemented for optimal accessibility. This includes an H3 heading (for author screen name) added to tweets to assist with screen reader users.
  • Works great with or without JavaScript.
  • Ajax actions are concluded with an alert that notifies the user of the result of the action.
  • Large default text size and high colour contrast. Layout/text resizes without breaking.
  • When entering tweets, audio cues indicate when the character limit is almost reached (in addition to character counter).
  • Forms and data tables are marked up for optimal accessibility.
  • Code is semantic, light, and adheres to best practices in Web Standards.
  • If a tweet is in response to another (and marked as such in the data), a clearer link is provided to the that tweet (not hidden). There’s also a more obvious link to the “permanent page” for the tweet.
  • A clearer link is provided for the “permanent” link for a tweet; the page containing only a single tweet.
  • Definitions of abbreviations are provided to certain acronyms in tweets such as IMHO (in my humble opinion).
  • Tested on all major browsers: IE6, IE7, IE8, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Chrome.
Visit http://www.accessibletwitter.com/ to try it out.