Sign in Subscribe
accessibiity

Improving accessibility in the fediverse and the ATmosphere

Jon

• 2 min read
the Accessibility icon

One wonderful feature of many of the communities in the fediverse is that so many many people take the time to put alt-text on their images – so low-vision and blind people can participate much more fully than on other social networks. Just as importantly, some fedi software works quite well for people using screenreaders and other assistive technology.

Still, other fedi software isn't anywhere hear as good from an accessibility perspective and it's not always easy to find the better options. Even though fedi's alt-text game is a lot better than other platforms, the majority of images and videos don't have alt text. And alt-text is only one aspect of making posts accessible; I often see user names and posts with text that's a really bad experience for people using screenreaders. So there's a lot of room for improvement.

Meanwhile on Bluesky and in the ATmosphere ... let's just say there's even more room for improvement.

The good news is that there are a lot of people on both platforms who want to help improve things – I've already talked to a couple of development teams who are interested, and there are lots of ways that people who aren't developers can contribute too.

So, let's get to work!

As a first step, let's focus on gathering information. A few key questions to start with:

  • What resources and tips have you found useful – or think might be useful for others?
  • What accessibility problems have you encountered on social networks – bugs, missing documentation or functionality, whatever?
  • What are inspirations or best practices from other software we can learn from (yes even including evil centralized social networks, because sometimes they do some aspects of accessibility quite well)
  • Any suggestions for improving things? These don't have to be limited to software improvements. For example, as new people join fedi, they're coming from networks that don't value accessibility as much ... how can we help them realize that things are different here, give them the basic tools they need to avoid common mistakes, and let them know how they can help if they have the time?

You can share your perspectives

I'll collect the responses and follow up with posts here, in the Fediverse, and in the ATmosphere – and schedule a webinar to present the results and discuss next steps.

If you're interested in helping with the project going forward, or just want stay in the loop, you can subscribe here, follow the Nexus of Privacy in the Fediverse or Bluesky, or optionally leave your contact information the Cryptpad form.