Accessible Graming
Have you ever wondered how blind or partially sighted people use Instagram? This blog covers two perspectives, from both a partially sighted and blind user.
As many people know, Instagram is a very popular social media platform. Especially in today’s generation, Instagram is very “in”, particularly amongst people our age. Because of this reason, many blind or partially sighted teens and young adults also wish to hop onto the Instagram bandwagon.
Jasjeet is 18 years old, and is partially sighted. Jasjeet very much enjoys spending time on Instagram and has been using it for 7 or 8 years. As an Instagram user who is partially sighted, Jasjeet does not use any accommodations for accessing the platform, but some partially sighted individuals may need an accessibility tool such as zoom, to utilize the app. Zoom (not to be confused with the video meeting software) is a built in feature in every Apple device, which enlarges the content displayed on the screen so it can be better viewed. Jasjeet has noticed that the Instagram world is a visual one. For instance, the filters that can be added to photos change visual aspects within the pictures. Additionally, sometimes there will be text on a picture for people to look at and read. For Jasjeet, Instagram is a great place where he has met friends. Jasjeet did not have a lot of friends during his elementary and high school time, and Instagram has allowed him to meet other people whom he could connect with.
For Jinnie, the experience is a very different one. Jinnie is totally blind, therefore relies on screen readers and speech software such as VoiceOver to navigate apps like Instagram. Voiceover is another built in accessibility feature on every Apple device allowing a blind individual to hear what is on their screen as they move around it. Jinnie joined Instagram much later than her peers as it did not seem very blind friendly at the time. Jinnie finally caved in and made an account as Instagram was becoming quite popular amongst people of her age. Although Instagram is very visual which causes Jinnie to struggle at times, the one great feature within the platform is being able to add alternative text to any pictures one uploads. This is when the uploader can include a description of the pictures they are posting which is able to be recognized by screen readers like VoiceOver. Not many people choose to use this inclusive feature however which leaves Jinnie guessing at the content of a picture from either the caption included with it or by the little snippets of what VoiceOver will attempt to describe.
When VoiceOver encounters pictures on Instagram, it will do its best to guess what is in a picture, but it usually does not go beyond things like “picture may contain indoor person, nature, outdoors, text.” Sometimes, Jinnie’s phone will simply say the word text if there is text within a picture, and at other times it will read out bits and pieces. Contrary to the added feature of alt text and Voiceover’s recognition, the filters and posting multiple photos is quite tricky for Jinnie. Due to the fact that the filters make visual changes within a picture, Jinnie is unable to determine the effects filters have on pictures. Along with this, when attempting to select multiple pictures, VoiceOver will not do so, possibly due to an accessibility glitch. In addition, Stories do not read out when they are looked at using VoiceOver, not to mention the stickers and cool effects one can add now to them as well. This being said, most things within Instagram are somewhat useable for a totally blind user, and although Jinnie wishes that certain features were made to be more accessible (such as Stories and making alternative text mandatory before a photo could be posted), Jinnie is highly grateful that participation in an app like Instagram is even possible, as there was a time when this wasn’t the case.
People often assume that many blind or partially sighted people simply stay away from Instagram, but it is quite the opposite, especially those who are younger actually want to follow what the rest of their peers are doing. Additionally, when one has a visual disability, it may appear to be even more of a desire to fit in with others their own age. Instagram is mostly useable by blind and partially sighted users, and if Social Media companies continue to do this, not only are they assisting in solidifying inclusive practices and perspectives, but they are also able to gain new customers and users.These were just two perspectives of many, but we hope they encourage discussion and thought about visual social media platforms and how in fact they can be enjoyed by all.
by Harjinder Saran (Jinnie) and Jasjeet Parhar