{"id":19298,"date":"2020-06-19T06:53:09","date_gmt":"2020-06-19T06:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rbsitsoftwaresolution.com\/blog\/somehow-twitter-does-not-have-a-team-dedicated-to-accessibility.html"},"modified":"2020-06-19T06:53:09","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T06:53:09","slug":"somehow-twitter-does-not-have-a-team-dedicated-to-accessibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/somehow-twitter-does-not-have-a-team-dedicated-to-accessibility.html","title":{"rendered":"Somehow, Twitter does not have a team dedicated to accessibility"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twitter <\/a> does not have a team dedicated to accessibility, the company confirmed after a developer alluded to the fact. It\u2019s a baffling omission for a company that employs some 4,000 people and a CEO who is often heard talking about doing the right thing.<\/p>\n

This is not to say that Twitter is a wasteland for accessibility features, though like any major platform it has a lot of room for improvement. But features that make a site easier for everyone to navigate \u2014 not just people who use screen readers or captions \u2014 require more than part-time input from concerned employees.<\/p>\n

That Twitter has no accessibility team was brought to broader attention in a tweet from Andrew Hayward, a Twitter developer who has himself done a lot of work on features for people with disabilities.<\/p>\n

When people criticized Twitter\u2019s new audio tweet feature<\/a> for not having any kind of captioning, the official Twitter Support account said that it was an \u201cearly version of this feature\u201d and that the company would be \u201cexploring\u201d ways to make it accessible, which didn\u2019t help.<\/p>\n

\n

Twitter begins rolling out audio tweets on iOS<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Hayward chimed in to say that he and the other \u201cvolunteers behind accessibility at Twitter\u201d were \u201cfrustrated and disappointed\u201d at the lack of consideration for people with disabilities, prompting astonishment that there is no dedicated team. He clarified that they are paid employees (not outright volunteers) but that \u201cthe work we do is notionally on top of our regular roles.\u201d So the work he and everyone else has done has essentially been in their spare time.<\/p>\n

A full time accessibility team may feel like a luxury at smaller companies, but Twitter can hardly claim to be small, new, or unaware of the importance of these features. So it\u2019s difficult to understand why it would have no team \u2014 even a handful of people \u2014 whose sole responsibility they are.<\/p>\n

I asked Twitter to confirm that the company has no dedicated accessibility team. In lieu of comment, the company offered a link to this trio of tweets<\/a>: A mea culpa<\/em>, a quick fix for a basic accessibility issue, and the assurance that Twitter is \u201clooking at how we can build a dedicated group to focus on accessibility, tooling, and advocacy across all products.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

We’re sorry about testing voice Tweets without support for people who are visually impaired, deaf, or hard of hearing. It was a miss to introduce this experiment without this support. <\/p>\n

Accessibility should not be an afterthought. (1\/3) https:\/\/t.co\/9GRWaHU6fR<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) June 19, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

In other words, no: There\u2019s no team, and only the very beginnings of a plan to build one. We\u2019ll follow up with Twitter soon to see how that\u2019s going.<\/p>\n

Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunch\/social\/~3\/aA8VdvqlARk\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twitter does not have a team dedicated to accessibility, the company confirmed after a developer alluded to the fact. It\u2019s a baffling omission for a company that employs some 4,000 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[10,7,14,15,6,12,11],"class_list":["post-19298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-update","tag-computer-news","tag-downloads","tag-microsoft-download-news","tag-networking-updates","tag-technology-update","tag-wordpress-plugin-download","tag-wordpress-theme-download"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t