Twitter's audio tweets reveal a bigger accessibility problem

Twitter started rolling out a brand new feature earlier this week that allowed iOS users to share recordings as audio tweets.

While lots of people were having a good time testing the new audio feature out, unfortunately not everyone could partake in the fun. That’s because Twitter overlooked a crucial component to this new audio feature: accessibility.

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Accessibility advocates criticized the microblogging platform for not being considerate of its users who are deaf or hard of hearing when launching audio tweets. For example, many online platforms such as YouTube or Facebook provide captions to ensure that those with disabilities can still consume content posted on the site.

Twitter, in a tweet, chalked up the oversight to the audio tweet feature being an early release of the product.

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That tweet set off a thread that revealed a larger problem with the company. Twitter does not have a “formal team” that works on accessibility.

While replying to an accessibility advocate’s concerns, Twitter software engineer Andrew Hayward revealed that those working on accessibility at the company “volunteer” to do so. He later clarified that the volunteers are indeed paid employees of the company, accessibility just wasn’t officially part of this informal team’s job requirements.

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If accessibility is viewed as an additional feature and not something built into the consideration of the design and creation of a product, it’s no surprise that the end result overlooks those with disabilities.

In a statement posted on its company account, Twitter explained that it is certainly listening to those accessibility advocates who are speaking out.

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When reached by The Verge, a Twitter spokesperson backed this up, saying the company intends to dedicate resources to focus on accessibility across its products.

"We’re looking at how we can build out a more dedicated group to focus on accessibility tooling and advocacy across all products," Twitter said in a statement. "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; we’ll share progress in this area."

With the continued growth of audio-centric online content thanks to podcasting, this surely won’t be the last time the accessibility issue comes up. However, a company as big and established as Twitter shouldn’t have a problem dedicating time and resources to making sure its platform is accessible to all.