Don’t DIS my Sociability

Mature aged man with a disability operating touchscreen computer.

Social media has given Internet users endless opportunities to connect, talk, share photos and videos, but there is still a disconnect for disabled users. For disabled users who may have physical or intellectual disabilities social media accessibility is out of reach for most of them.

Social media must improve accessibility for disabled users and work towards being an inclusive platform. Natasha Mitchell shares in her interview with Dr Scott Hollier, Project Manager at Media Access Australia on Sociability: how accessible is social media? that social media today is equivalent to being a basic human right and access to the Internet is an essential service for all users. She shares that for web developers and graphic designers who contribue to the issue who do not comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are like architects who forget to design a wheelchair ramp for disabled users to access the front door.

Goggin & Newell state in their article on ‘The Business of Digital Disability’ that the difficulty of social media inclusion lies in the problematic nature of accessibility as a concept. Accessibility by design is self-regulated and is a reflection of social relations. Accessibility will either facilitate inclusion or exclusion and Goggin & Newell promote the importance for digital disability inclusion in the design process.

People with disabilities still face a long struggle for digital ability inclusion with the creation of inaccessible technologies like the iPhone which has no raised or recessed buttons and inaccessible social media content being produced like the Facebook Homepage for Android devices. Many blind and vision impaired users have found the platform largely inaccessible through screen readers. But there is hope for the disabled user with Facebook rectifying the issue and working towards making the Homepage compatible with screen reader to enable blind and vision impaired users greater access to the social network and its services. As well as the development of the world’s first tactile smartphone, tailored to the blind user with braille buttons and audible content.

Hopefully more companies like these will work towards reducing exclusions and create a gateway for participation and accessibility for all users.