Twitter audio tweets are not accessible to everyone

Last week a new feature was released by Twitter, allows iOS users create sound tweets.

And while many users have already tried the feature on Appliances There are some who can't participate in the fun, due to an important element that the company seems to have overlooked: accessibility.

Many criticized her platform, that he did not think of users with hearing problems when he created this one mode. Many online platforms like YouTube or the Facebook, provide captions to ensure that people with disabilities can still access the audio content posted on the site.

Twitter said it was an early release of audio tweets.

However, this tweet started a thread that revealed a bigger problem of the company, as Twitter does not have an "official team" dealing with the issue of accessibility on the platform.

In response, Twitter software engineer Andrew Hayward revealed that those who work for accessibility to the company are "volunteers". He later clarified that the volunteers are in fact paid employees of the company, but accessibility was not officially part of the work requirements of this informal group.

Since the accessibility is not embedded in the rules taken into account when designing and creating a new feature, it is natural to be missing from the new audio tweets feature.

A Twitter spokesman told The Verge that the company intends to devote resources to focusing on accessibility for its products.

"We are looking at how we can build a more dedicated team to focus on accessibility tools and support for all products," Twitter said in a statement. "We made a mistake in the audio Tweets and we are committed to making them better - making this feature more accessible as well as all the features in the future. We are constantly reviewing both the functionality of our products and the internal processes that inform them. We will make progress in this area. "

With the content in Internet to focus more and more on sound thanks to podcasting, there will definitely be other accessibility issues. However, a company as large and well-established as Twitter should have no problem devoting time and resources to making sure its platform is accessible to all.