Hey Matthew, this is an early version of this feature and we’re exploring ways to make these types of Tweets accessible to everyone.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) June 17, 2020
“This is an early version of this feature and we’re exploring ways to make these types of Tweets accessible to everyone,” Twitter responded from its official support account.
But if Twitter’s initial statement was meant to to smooth things over, it had the opposite of its intended effect. Instead, the response came off as tone deaf, with critics saying it made it seem as though accessibility is an afterthought for Twitter.
“The Americans With Disabilities Act was signed into law 30 years ago,” Cortland wrote. “Federal law requires accessibility from the start. You don’t, as a matter of civil rights law, get to roll out an inaccessible feature and then, only later, make it accessible.”
Criticism intensified when a Twitter engineer noted that the company doesn’t have a formal team dedicated to accessibility work. Instead, he and other engineers “volunteer” to work on accessibility projects in addition to their regular duties.
The Americans With Disabilities Act was signed into law 30 years ago. Federal law requires accessibility from the start. You don’t, as a matter of civil rights law, get to roll out an inaccessible feature and then, only later, make it accessible. https://t.co/f58t9pthAy
— Matthew Cortland, Esq (@mattbc) June 17, 2020
“The volunteers behind accessibility at Twitter (there is no formal team) strive to do their best to ensure products are shipped appropriately,” wrote Andrew Hayward. “Unfortunately though, we aren’t aware of every product decision, and the wider #a11y conversation is ongoing.”
Multiple Twitter employees later apologized for the missteps. The product designer behind voice notes posted a lengthy apology — in the form of a voice note with an accompanying transcript — saying Twitter is “absolutely working to fix this as soon as possible.” Twitter’s Head of Design and Research, Dantley Davis, also promised accessibility would play a larger role in future projects.
I appreciate the feedback and direct conversation about #a11y from our passionate community. It’s clear we have a lot of work ahead to make Twitter more inclusive for people with disabilities. I will advocate for a11y to be part of our design from the beginning of all projects.
— Dantley Davis (@dantley) June 18, 2020
In a statement, Twitter said it’s “looking at how we can build out a more dedicated group to focus on accessibility tooling and advocacy.”
Right now, there are groups and individuals across the company that support our accessibility work like @TwitterA11y and @TwitterAble. But, we’re looking at how we can build out a more dedicated group to focus on accessibility tooling and advocacy across all products. We missed around voice Tweets, and we are committed to doing better – making this feature more accessible and also all features in the future. We’re constantly reviewing both the functionality of our products and the internal processes that inform them.
The company also said it is “exploring ideas for how we could support manual and auto transcriptions,” and has updates planned that will make voice tweets more accessible for people with vision impairments.
We’re already exploring ideas for how we could support manual and auto transcriptions.
We’re also looking at how we can build a dedicated group to focus on accessibility, tooling, and advocacy across all products, in partnership with the @TwitterA11y and @TwitterAble teams. (3)
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) June 19, 2020
The real test for Twitter, though, will be not whether or not it addresses voice notes, but how it approaches accessibility in the future. Other companies have dedicated teams, not just employee volunteers, to ensure products are accessible to people with a range of abilities and backgrounds. Twitter might want to follow their example if it wants to prove it takes these issues seriously.
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Comments
73
Shares
