Introduction
The social network Reddit has announced significant changes to how people will be able to access the platform from July. These changes will have major implications for blind people.
How people access Reddit
There are currently multiple ways to access Reddit:
- Reddit’s original website, often referred to as “Old Reddit”
- Reddit’s new website, often referred to as “New Reddit”
- Reddit’s official apps for iOS and Android
- third-party apps for iOS, Android, Windows, etc
Old Reddit, New Reddit and Reddit’s iOS app have significant accessibility and/or usability deficiencies for screen reader users. As such, most blind people access Reddit through third-party apps such as Dystopia, Apollo, BaconReader, RedditForBlind, and Luna For Reddit because the interfaces in these apps are often much more accessible than Reddit’s first-party offerings.
What’s changing
Third-party apps access Reddit through something called an application programming interface (API). The Reddit API exchanges information back and forth between a Reddit app and Reddit's servers. For example, if a user enters a subreddit, the API will send a request to Reddit to obtain the posts in that subreddit, which the app will then display to the user. When a user selects a post, the API will send a request to Reddit to obtain the content of the post and comments posted in reply to it.
Reddit provides API access to developers at no cost. But from July, Reddit will be introducing an exorbitant cost for it, and many app developers have indicated that they cannot see any way that they will be able to afford to pay for API access.
What you should do
Reddit has been unwilling to compromise with app developers, even those with highly popular apps. Reddit has also been unwilling to compromise with the moderators of r/Blind. It is now up to us to act.
Sighted Redditors who use third-party apps can make a decision on July 1 if they would still like to use Reddit despite third-party apps no longer being usable. Blind people do not have a decision to make—Reddit has effectively told us that we are dispensable.
When blind people could no longer use third-party Twitter clients, they were able to use the website and apps, which were already quite accessible thanks to the efforts of Twitter’s accessibility team. But Reddit has never had an accessibility team, so to lose access to third-party Reddit apps would sever the lifeline that blind people have to Reddit and signal the end of our thriving participation.
Reddit is a highly valued social network by its blind users. Other social networks are dominated by images and videos that are almost all out of reach. But there are parts of Reddit where you can scroll for hours without seeing an image, and where you can participate in conversations with millions of other people using highly accessible apps.
We should all value the benefits that come from having access to such a vibrant online community, and we should do everything in our power to ensure that this access is not taken away.
We advocate best when we come together as a community. We should all do our utmost to spread the word about this issue to influential people and organisations, and other blind people and sighted allies who can join in our advocacy. We should also share our concerns with Reddit so that they can understand the gravity of this situation. We must show Reddit that we are persistent and that it is unacceptable for access to regress. We need to show Reddit that we are a community who deserves to be placated, and that there should be no decisions about access to Reddit made without our involvement.
Comments
Well ok...
It actually worked, wow.
I didn't think this would amount to much but reddit's actually pulling back. I've never been happier to be wrong in my life.
Now the question is will I still be able to use dystopia as its in beta form.
Quite an unfortunate cop-out by Reddit
With the latest news from The Verge and other sources that Reddit will (at least at time of writing) exempt accessibility-focused apps from their upcoming API changes, I can only sit back and shake my head at the massive cop-out that was just undertaken by "the front page of the Internet."
By making this latest decision, Reddit from all appearances would seem to be trying to stress to its visually impaired users that they do indeed hear your concerns, take them seriously, and support you. But if you look beyond the surface you'll see that couldn't be further from the truth. In reality, Reddit just found the greatest excuse, the greatest cop-out possible for continuing to let accessibility be an afterthought, and they're hoping nobody will notice.
As mentioned in previous comments, there is no incentive for Reddit to fix the many accessibility issues (some of them glaring) of its official interfaces if they continue to allow third-party developers to build accessible apps that bypass said interfaces, and this latest decision only furthers that narrative. If Reddit truly cared about accessibility, they would get their own offerings in order first - i.e. shore up the accessibility bugs present in their new website and their mobile applications - before allowing third party developers to come in and do what Reddit developers should have done themselves. After all, what happens when the developers of accessible third-party applications decide they want to move on to other endeavors, can no longer sustain the application, or otherwise are unable to continue development? Third-party developers and apps are far more likely to come and go than the platform to which those apps connect, and it would certainly be nice to know that even if all third-party app access is cut off, the original platform is still accessible and usable by anyone. Granted, right now it is very usable by a lot of people who are visually impaired, as long as you don't believe the fear mongering that says otherwise, or you are willing to learn the interfaces, learn what is necessary to use them, improve your technology skills sufficiently to allow you to utilize what Reddit has provided.
I also don't believe this new decision by the company does its bottom line any favors, which again is the primary reason they are in business. They would be able to earn additional revenue from users that are using their official interfaces, where ads and other monetization strategies are more likely to be allowed and employed, and carving out an exemption for the visually impaired, even though such a group is a drop in the bucket of Reddit's overall user base, is entirely contrary to this setup.
The main takeaway though is that Reddit once again has shown that it doesn't necessarily care in true fashion about its users and would rather leave them to the whims of a third party than take on the responsibility of ensuring its official interfaces are accessible and usable by everyone. The better decision would have been to continue its original plan to cut all third party app access to the platform so they could then focus solely (as far as the visually impaired and others with disabilities are concerned) on making their official offerings accessible. They would have no excuse not to do so then, but have every excuse not to do so now. Quite the cop-out indeed.
I agree it's a copout
I don't need a third party app to use youtube, facebook, twitter, browse the web, check my email, order food, swipe on dating profiles, read the news, listen to the radio etc. I sometimes choose to pay for third party apps that give more features or have additional accessibility optimizations, I'll gladly pay a little bit for such things when they work, but even that isn't allowed by reddit's noncommercial exemption. We should not be content with separate but equal, history's taught us that much if nothing else. To me this move by reddit to allow access-focused apps jjust compounds the horrible message they're sending us by saying accessibility isn't their problem and, adding insult to injury, it shouldn't even be financially supported when third party devs care enough to improve the experience for us. Shame on reddit, shame on those of us here who claim we're the problem by not being properly unified, and shame on anyone among us who celebrates reddit's supposed cooperation here. Strong words perhaps but they're warranted.
I agree.
I'm happy I'll hopefully be able to use dystopia but I do completely agree.
I hope things improve for reddits' website in the future but I doubt it. Then Again; I have been wrong before :)
I wouldn't call it a victory
I wouldn't consider this a victory; it's merely a temporary solution.
Twitter has demonstrated how easily accessibility can be disregarded.
Back then, I predicted that Reddit would follow a similar path, and my prediction came true.
Even Apple could eventually decide that maintaining accessibility features requires too much effort and stop prioritizing them.
None of these companies are obligated to offer accessibility; not a single one.
Surprisingly, programming courses often overlook or barely touch upon the topic of accessibility.
And the unfortunate reality is that one day, when you're older and may need some of these features yourself, they won't be available because accessibility isn't prioritized.
It’s not a victory but a functioning solution is what matters.
Ideally Reddit would care about accessibility but they have consistantly shown they don’t. Ideally everyone would design with accessibility in mind but some do and some don’t. Ideally twitter wouldn’t have cancelled their API access then their accessibility team but they did. As others have said, platforms are not legally obliged to provide anything. In theory, every single platform website and app could drop any concerns for accessible design and nothing could be done so while its no victory and is a cop out on Reddits part, at least there is a workable solution. To those thinking Reddit would suddenly care about accessibility just because they cancelled API access, I think its worth remembering what is currently happening with twitter. If accessibility still works its not because Twitter is making an effort to make that happen, its because they haven’t completely broken it yet.
Re being unified.
I don’t know if anyone said we’re the problem by not being unified but looking at history unification does appear to yield positive results. LGBTQi+ is a pretty good example. I know it seems crazy now but theres no real reason why there couldn’t be a similar set of letters for all disabilities clubbing together to demand better. I’m not suggesting it but its easy to see the potential advantages.
The example you give is not unified
Andy, that example is not a unified movement. There are serious disagreements within it e.g. over gay marriage, the addition of the T, the addition of the +, that sort of thing. I reiterate that very often the supposed unifiers become dangerously intolerant zealots - the sort of people who push a concrete block off a bridge to stop people crossing a picket line or who intimidate employers to sack workers who refuse to join a union.
to get back on topic, I'm glad you edditters can use Reddit for the foreseeable future. I agree with Neosonic2 on the point of principle.
Bingo.
Good point. They are definitely not a singular movement with a unifying goal however its probably fair to say they wouldn’t have got anywhere near as far as they have without coming together. The zeolites and in fighting are I guess an inevitable and unfortunate result of so many different ideas trying to cram under the same roof. The toxicity of certain letters using new found power to beat everyone else up is unfortunate too. Problems aside That movement has achieved incredible progress and I can’t help thinking it couldn’t have happened without unity as imperfect as it was. I think the exemption of dystopia is a work around. Reddit committing to accessibility would have been the preferred outcome but they haven’t shown any interest in doing that. With their coming IPO they’ve probably got $ on the brain instead of re-designing their apps to be more accessible.
Many of us regard 'us vs them' as a weakness
Again, ask a lot of gay Conservative party members during the early part of this century, for example, and you'll find that the 'us vs them' mentality put an awful lot of them off. In advocating for stuff like this I personally don't think it works either. I don't see accessibility as something adversarial - Bingo v. Sighted in the High Court of justice King's Bench Division, Bristol District Registry.