Reddit’s New Problem: The Lack Of Accessibility Features
Well, this is going from bad to worse for Reddit. On top of everything else that’s going on with the API protests, and Reddit’s frankly ham fisted response to them. The company has a new problem. Accessibility. Or rather the lack of it. Via The Verge:
Reddit will make “accessibility improvements” to many moderator tools in its official mobile apps by July 1st, the company announced on Friday.
Some moderators rely on third-party apps because Reddit’s apps have what they characterize as “significant accessibility challenges,” and the accessibility community has expressed concerns over how they will moderate on mobile after popular apps like Apollo shut down on June 30th due to potentially expensive API pricing changes. It seems this roadmap, which promises improvements to features like the moderation queue and the ModMail messaging system on Android and iOS, is intended to assuage those fears.
Based on the replies to the announcement post, however, many are still unhappy with the company’s plans. “A multibillion dollar corporation forcing disabled people (including the profoundly disabled) to simply ‘learn new tools,’ and to stop using the accessibility tools they’re used to — the tools they depend on — to access / moderate the communities they depend on — is cruel,” wrote PotRoastPotato, a moderator who has advocated for disabled communities as part of the recent protests across Reddit. “As long as there are disabled users who depend on and are accustomed to the accessibility features of third-party apps, these apps need to be preserved,” PotRoastPotato added in an email to The Verge.
Reddit’s roadmap notes that some features won’t be available until late July or sometime in August, and some are critiquing the company for that choice. “Why are these not blockers that you are forcing Reddit to delay API changes for?” one user wrote. “Do you find it acceptable to have an inherently worse moderator accessibility experience while pulling the rug out from underneath the community?”
Well, I am sure that this isn’t the response that Steve Huffman and company were hoping for. But it’s Reddit’s fault that they are in this situation. If they thought this whole situation through rather than taking an Elon Musk approach to this, perhaps they would be in a different place. But much like Elon Musk, Steve Huffman doesn’t strike me as the type to think things through. Instead he strikes me as the type to just do stuff and then be surprised when there’s blowback. This is another reason, on top of the ones that I outlined here, why Reddit is doomed.
UPDATE: Meanwhile on Reddit, posts like this are starting to appear:
This entry was posted on June 26, 2023 at 8:21 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Reddit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Reddit’s New Problem: The Lack Of Accessibility Features
Well, this is going from bad to worse for Reddit. On top of everything else that’s going on with the API protests, and Reddit’s frankly ham fisted response to them. The company has a new problem. Accessibility. Or rather the lack of it. Via The Verge:
Reddit will make “accessibility improvements” to many moderator tools in its official mobile apps by July 1st, the company announced on Friday.
Some moderators rely on third-party apps because Reddit’s apps have what they characterize as “significant accessibility challenges,” and the accessibility community has expressed concerns over how they will moderate on mobile after popular apps like Apollo shut down on June 30th due to potentially expensive API pricing changes. It seems this roadmap, which promises improvements to features like the moderation queue and the ModMail messaging system on Android and iOS, is intended to assuage those fears.
Based on the replies to the announcement post, however, many are still unhappy with the company’s plans. “A multibillion dollar corporation forcing disabled people (including the profoundly disabled) to simply ‘learn new tools,’ and to stop using the accessibility tools they’re used to — the tools they depend on — to access / moderate the communities they depend on — is cruel,” wrote PotRoastPotato, a moderator who has advocated for disabled communities as part of the recent protests across Reddit. “As long as there are disabled users who depend on and are accustomed to the accessibility features of third-party apps, these apps need to be preserved,” PotRoastPotato added in an email to The Verge.
Reddit’s roadmap notes that some features won’t be available until late July or sometime in August, and some are critiquing the company for that choice. “Why are these not blockers that you are forcing Reddit to delay API changes for?” one user wrote. “Do you find it acceptable to have an inherently worse moderator accessibility experience while pulling the rug out from underneath the community?”
Well, I am sure that this isn’t the response that Steve Huffman and company were hoping for. But it’s Reddit’s fault that they are in this situation. If they thought this whole situation through rather than taking an Elon Musk approach to this, perhaps they would be in a different place. But much like Elon Musk, Steve Huffman doesn’t strike me as the type to think things through. Instead he strikes me as the type to just do stuff and then be surprised when there’s blowback. This is another reason, on top of the ones that I outlined here, why Reddit is doomed.
UPDATE: Meanwhile on Reddit, posts like this are starting to appear:
This situation may be about to get really bad for Reddit.
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This entry was posted on June 26, 2023 at 8:21 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Reddit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.