This document provides an overview and introduction to using Twitter and the accessible Twitter client Easy Chirp. It includes an agenda, background about the presenter, information on signing up for Twitter and using Easy Chirp, explanations of basic Twitter features like statuses, mentions, replies, retweets and favorites, and descriptions of tools in Easy Chirp like search, lists, trends and direct messages. It also discusses future plans, feedback, other accessible Twitter apps and takes questions.

1. Networking with Twitter, Part 1
Using Twitter and Easy Chirp
Presented by Dennis Lembrée
for the Hadley School for the Blind
March 14, 2012
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2. Agenda
∗ About Me ∗ Tools
∗ Twitter Background, Stats & ∗ Search, lists, trends, links
Factoids ∗ Future Plans
∗ Signing Up ∗ Feedback
∗ Why Easy Chirp? ∗ Other Accessible Twitter Apps
∗ Navigation ∗ Next Session
∗ Basics ∗ Questions?
∗ Status & Timeline, Mentions, ∗ Contact Info
Replies, Retweets, Favorites,
DM, Hash Tags
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3. About Me
∗ Author of Easy Chirp
∗ Author of Web Axe
∗ Day job at PayPal
∗ Also worked for Ford, Google & Disney and a
few start-ups
∗ Live in Cupertino, CA with wife and 2 boys
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4. Twitter Background
∗ Originates from "daylong brainstorming session" held
by board members of the podcasting company Odeo.
∗ Twitter started in July 2006.
∗ Jack Dorsey @jack
∗ Biz Stone @biz
∗ Evan Williams @ev
∗ Started as SMS service to send short messages within
a group.
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5. Twitter Stats
∗ February 2012
∗ 175 million tweets per day
∗ While the USA leads the way, Twitter is also popular in
Brazil, Japan and the UK.
∗ Twitter’s most-followed user, Lady Gaga, has nearly 20
million followers (then Justin Bieber, Katy Perry).
∗ 64 percent of users access Twitter via Twitter.com.
∗ 11 accounts created every second.
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6. Twitter Factoids
∗ Originally named Twttr, a name inspired by Flickr.
∗ The name of bird in logo is “Larry the Bird” named
after Boston Celtic’s basketball legend Larry Bird.
∗ Twitter’s infamous "fail whale" error message image
created by Yiying Lu, an artist and a designer in
Sydney, Australia.
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7. Signing Up
∗ Must sign up on Twitter’s website.
∗ https://twitter.com/signup
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8. Signing Up
∗ Choosing account name (AKA username, handle)
∗ Short
∗ Memorable
∗ Identifies you/your business
∗ Avoid special characters
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9. Signing Up
∗ Some rules from Twitter:
∗ Impersonation: You may not impersonate others through the
Twitter service in a manner that does or is intended to mislead,
confuse, or deceive others.
∗ Trademark: We reserve the right to reclaim user names on
behalf of businesses or individuals that hold legal claim or
trademark on those user names. Accounts using business names
and/or logos to mislead others will be permanently suspended.
∗ Privacy: You may not publish or post other people's private and
confidential information, such as credit card numbers, street
address or Social Security/National Identity numbers, without
their express authorization and permission.
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10. Signing Up
∗ Rules continued:
∗ Violence and Threats: You may not publish or post direct,
specific threats of violence against others.
∗ Username Squatting: You may not engage in username
squatting. Accounts that are inactive for more than 6
months may also be removed without further notice.
∗ Selling user names: You may not buy or sell Twitter
usernames.
∗ No Spam.
∗ No Pornography.
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11. Why Easy Chirp?
∗ Accessible (screen readers, keyboard, etc.)
∗ Robust
∗ IE6, low-band, Lynx, no JS, original Kindle, etc.
∗ Supports all main features
∗ Easy to use!
∗ Awards
∗ AFB 2011 Access Award
∗ RNIB Featured Website, December 2011
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12. Navigation
∗ Signing in
∗ Use “Sign in with Twitter” button.
∗ Under “Sign In” heading.
∗ Besides “skip to main content”, home page has “skip to
sign in” link.
∗ Uses “open authentication” which requires approval of
account access from Twitter’s website.
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13. Navigation
∗ <h1>Easy Chirp
∗ Headings ∗ <h2>My Info
∗ Each tweet contains H3 ∗ <h2>Menu
∗ <h3>Go to User
of username. ∗ <h3>App Menu
∗ <h3>Tweet Menu
∗ <h2>What's happening?
∗ <h3>My latest tweet:
∗ <h3>Shorten URL
∗ <h2>Timeline
∗ <h3>account name
∗ <h3>account name
∗ <h3>account name
∗ <h2>Footer
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14. Navigation
∗ ARIA Landmarks ∗ banner
∗ navigation (main menu)
∗ main
∗ navigation (pagination)
∗ contentinfo
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15. Basics: Status & Timeline
∗ The Status is the core of Twitter.
∗ Also known as Tweet.
∗ Short text-based message.
∗ Must be less than 140 characters.
∗ All tweets are public (unless account marked private in user
settings).
∗ “What are you doing?” to “What’s happening?” to nothing.
∗ Similar to Facebook status (or wall post) or LinkedIn update.
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16. Basics: Status & Timeline
∗ Create status in Easy Chirp
∗ Status text field is labeled “What’s happening?”
∗ Character counter contains ARIA (originally a Flash-
WAV-JS widget).
∗ aria-live=“polite"
∗ URL Shortener (bit.ly & weba.im)
∗ “Tweet about Easy Chirp” shortcut.
∗ From Timeline, My Tweets, Mentions pages.
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17. Basics: Status & Timeline
∗ Timeline is list of status messages from accounts you
are following.
∗ Friends – accounts you are following.
∗ Followers – accounts following you.
∗ One-to-many relationship, rather than one-to-one in
Facebook and LinkedIn.
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18. Basics: Status & Timeline
∗ Each Status in Timeline has:
∗ Tweet text
∗ Username
∗ Links to Timeline, DM, tweet message (mention)
∗ Tweet options
∗ Favorite, reply, reply-to-all, quote tweet, retweet.
∗ Date/time which links to single-tweet page.
∗ Name of originating app.
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19. Basics: Mentions
∗ When someone puts your @username in a tweet.
∗ Why?
∗ Directing tweet to you.
∗ Gives credit for work.
∗ Gives credit for a tweet.
∗ Asking you/others a question.
∗ Copies you with info. /cc
∗ Where the real “social” part takes place.
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20. Basics: Replies
∗ A reply is similar to a mention, but the tweet is
marked as a response to your tweet.
∗ How reply is displayed to user depends on the app.
∗ A reply to you must contain your @username (usually
first in tweet).
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21. Basics: Replies
∗ In Easy Chirp:
∗ Reply to a tweet by clicking the “Reply” icon link.
∗ A reply tweet contains a “Responding” link at end (after
name of app used).
∗ Visually, grey arrow displayed on right.
∗ Clicking “Responding” link will display original tweet
below, inline.
∗ aria-live="assertive“
∗ When no JS, taken to new page with original tweet.
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22. Basics: Replies
∗ Reply appears in a user’s timeline only if a user
follows both the sender and receiver.
∗ When writing reply, insert “.” in front of username to
ensure all your followers see the reply in their timeline.
∗ Replies linked together creates a “conversation”.
∗ Easy Chirp also offers a reply-to-all feature.
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23. Basics: Retweets
∗ A Retweet (RT) is when you copy another person’s
tweet.
∗ Cannot be modified.
∗ Quote Tweet/Classic RT
∗ Copied tweet which can be modified.
∗ Was the norm before Twitter launched the current
retweet method.
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24. Basics: Retweets
∗ For quote tweets, use…
∗ RT when text virtually same.
∗ MT when text modified slightly.
∗ Via or HT when text modified considerably.
∗ Some apps insert quotation marks around the tweet
instead of these acronyms.
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25. Basics: Retweets
∗ In Easy Chirp:
∗ Retweet a tweet by clicking the “Re-Tweet” icon link.
∗ Retweets display a Retweet link at end of tweet info
(after name of app used).
∗ Visually, 2 angled arrows displayed on right.
∗ Clicking the Retweet link will go to new page displaying
only the original tweet.
∗ No special treatment for quote tweets.
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26. Basics: Favorites
∗ A Favorite is a tweet marked as a favorite; to save to
view at a later time.
∗ Favorites are public.
∗ Although less used/known/implemented.
∗ To create/remove favorite in an app, usually toggle a
control in app, many times a star icon.
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27. Basics: Favorites
∗ In Easy Chirp:
∗ You may toggle favorite with star icon.
∗ Alt text is “Make Favorite” and changes to “Processing”
then to “Remove Favorite” when it’s marked.
∗ Without JS, works with full page refresh.
∗ View on Favorites page.
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28. Basics: DM
∗ DM stands for Direct Message.
∗ Private message, also < 140 characters.
∗ Can only send DM to your followers.
∗ To send:
∗ DM functionality in app tool.
∗ In status:
d + username + message
∗ Be careful not to send DM as regular tweet!
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29. Basics: DM
∗ Easy Chirp’s DM page:
∗ Help text at beginning.
∗ Send DM section.
∗ Listings
∗ Inbox (Messages I Received)
∗ Sent (Message I Sent)
∗ Delete included in options under each message.
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30. Basics: Hash Tags
∗ For #keyword search.
∗ Clicking #hashtag takes you to Search Results page.
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31. Tools: Search
∗ Search (tweets)
∗ Hints table
∗ Saved searches
∗ Search users
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32. Tools: Lists
∗ Special group of accounts.
∗ Easy Chirp’s Lists page:
∗ Create
∗ My Lists
∗ View members and subscribers
∗ Add members
∗ Edit settings
∗ View on Twitter
∗ Subscribed Lists
∗ View members and subscribers
∗ View on Twitter
∗ Unsubscribe
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33. Tools: Lists
∗ To subscribe:
∗ Go a user Profile page.
∗ Click Lists at bottom of page.
∗ Click “Subscribe” link under desired list.
∗ List names are H4.
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34. Tools: Trends
∗ Most popular topics on Twitter.
∗ Daily and weekly.
∗ From Twitter.
∗ Currently has bug.
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35. Tools: Links
∗ Current 15 popular links.
∗ Categories:
∗ All
∗ News
∗ Images
∗ Video
∗ Data from TweetMeme.
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36. Future Plans
∗ Error handling for Trends data.
∗ Re-implement functionality to add image to tweet.
∗ Enhance List functionality with Ajax.
∗ Add inline notice and update of new tweets.
∗ Display if a user is following you.
∗ Quick way to report a spammer account.
∗ Ability to view full URL of a shortened link.
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37. Giving Feedback
∗ Email info@easychirp.com
∗ @EasyChirp
∗ Current tasks list on home page.
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38. Other Accessible Twitter Apps
∗ The Qube (code fork of Qwitter)
∗ Desktop client specifically for screen readers
∗ http://www.quartzprojects.co.uk/
∗ Twit-Monger (code fork of Qwitter)
∗ Desktop client specifically for screen readers
∗ http://twitmonger.shaned.net/
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39. Other Accessible Twitter Apps
∗ TwInbox (previously McTwit)
∗ Plug-in for MS Outlook
∗ Costly, proprietary
∗ http://techhit.com/TwInbox/
∗ YoruFukurou (NightOwl)
∗ Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later
∗ http://sites.google.com/site/yorufukurou/home-en
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40. Other Accessible Twitter Apps
∗ TweetList
∗ iPhone
∗ http://zooble.com/tweetlist
∗ Slandr, Dabr, Tweete
∗ Mobile site, web-based
∗ http://m.slandr.net/
∗ http://m.dabr.co.uk/
∗ http://m.tweete.net/
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41. Next Session
∗ Part 2: Twitter for Your Small Business
∗ Writing a great tweet.
∗ Tweet ideas.
∗ Using hash tags and lists.
∗ Strategies.
∗ What not to do.
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42. Questions?
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43. Contact Info
∗ Web Sites
∗ www.EasyChirp.com
∗ WebAxe.blogspot.com
∗ www.DennisLembree.com
∗ Twitter Accounts
∗ @EasyChirp
∗ @WebAxe
∗ @DennisL
∗ SlideShare
∗ www.slideshare.net/webaxe/presentations
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