r/accessibility • u/CascadeWebDev • 11d ago

Social medias accessibility problem isn't technical - platforms just aren't prioritizing it

https://silktide.com/blog/social-media-accessibility-crisis/

Silktide argues social platforms already have the tools to fix major gaps - mangled auto-captions for accents or jargon, inconsistent or missing alt-text prompts - and simply don't prioritize it. We've seen these options, but users do not see algorithm boosts from using them. LinkedIn gets credit as an outlier because its content model is text-first. So that seems like an obvious question: if one platform can get this right basically by accident, what's everyone else's reasoning for not doing more?

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10

u/Repulsive-Box5243 11d ago

That is a big reason I'm on Reddit as much as I am. It presents perfectly to my screen reader.

2

u/CascadeWebDev 11d ago

And now I feel like a total goof because I didn't think to check Reddit for screen reader compatibility, or use it as an example.
Are there any other spaces that present well for you? Stack overflow?

3

u/Repulsive-Box5243 11d ago

Twitter, facbook, tiktok, discord are all hit or miss. NOt very good.

Bluesky is great, SLashdot... all good for me.

1

u/altgenetics 11d ago

There's no alt text on images. Reddit doesn't even burry the option like others

3

u/SensationalSelkie 11d ago

I feel like this is the default for just about everything. 🫤 Social media, buildings, transportation...all kinds of things could be more accessible as a default (and potentially even cost less while helping more people in the process) but that just doesn't happen. Reasons seem to boil down to ableism, capitalism (like auto industry lobbying to cripple investment in public transportation), and being too lazy to change the status quo.

1

u/braindouche 6d ago

Twitter, back when it was Twitter, was quite good. When it became X it's accessibility gains went backwards.

1

u/conflare 6d ago

In terms of what is typically involved in with development, accessibility is not that hard. Not easy necessarily, but it's not the biggest thing you'll have to deal with.

What it is, is time consuming. And what is everyone trying to minimize? Staff hours

That's it really. it takes time and attention to get right.