Reddit made it impossible for blind Redditors to moderate

2026-06-02T13:34:26Z

80.195.131.137: /* Background */ grammar: 'so large' to 'as large'

{{IncidentCargo
|Company=Reddit
|StartDate=2023-07-01
|EndDate=
|Status=
|ProductLine=
|Product=Reddit
|ArticleType=
|Type=Accessibility
|Description=
}}
On July 1st 2023, an announcement was made that there were serious issues with accessibility of the main '''[[Reddit]]''' website, specifically concerning blind moderators.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=1 July 2023 |title=They finally did it: Reddit made it impossible for blind Redditors to moderate their own sub |url=https://old.reddit.com/r/Blind/comments/14nzwkm/they_finally_did_it_reddit_made_it_impossible_for/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250321040305/https://old.reddit.com/r/Blind/comments/14nzwkm/they_finally_did_it_reddit_made_it_impossible_for/ |archive-date=21 Mar 2025 |access-date=20 Mar 2025 |website=[[Reddit]]}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=3 Jul 2023 |title=Reddit screws over blind community - a lesson on road rage in business |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdAOAmaMIL8 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://preservetube.com/watch?v=JdAOAmaMIL8 |archive-date=2023-08-11 |access-date=20 Mar 2025 |website=[[YouTube]]}}</ref> This forced blind and visually-impaired moderators to resort to third-party apps in order to execute their usual tasks. The blind redditor's concerns were hindered at the time due to changes a month earlier regarding the larger {{Wplink|Reddit API controversy|2023 API controversy}}.

==Background==
The accessibility updates were announced on June 30th.<ref>{{Cite web |date=30 June 2023 |title=Accessibility Updates to Mod Tools: Part 2 |url=https://old.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/14n9426/accessibility_updates_to_mod_tools_part_2/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250118183258/https://old.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/14n9426/accessibility_updates_to_mod_tools_part_2/ |archive-date=18 Jan 2025 |access-date=20 Mar 2025 |website=[[Reddit]]}}</ref> For a platform as large as Reddit, accessibility should be ensured for the large user base. The moderators tried working with Reddit, and the demo Reddit gave made it clear to the moderators that Reddit could not be used without sight, and there was no reaction to requesting a test with a screen curtain on.<ref name=":0" /> The third-party app RedReader did have proper accessibility features for screen reader use, but had issues with logins at the time.

===Third-party apps in the API controversy===
Initially all free third-party apps had to pay up the cost for accessing content of Reddit.<ref>{{Cite web |date=3 Jun 2023 |title=Reddit's Recently Announced API Changes, and the future of the /r/blind subreddit |url=https://old.reddit.com/r/Blind/comments/13zr8h2/reddits_recently_announced_api_changes_and_the/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250326200914/https://old.reddit.com/r/Blind/comments/13zr8h2/reddits_recently_announced_api_changes_and_the/ |archive-date=26 Mar 2025 |access-date=20 Mar 2025 |website=[[Reddit]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2 Jun 2023 |title=Update 3: Reddit effectively kills off third party apps |url=https://old.reddit.com/r/RedReader/comments/13ylk42/update_3_reddit_effectively_kills_off_third_party/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250115033936/https://old.reddit.com/r/RedReader/comments/13ylk42/update_3_reddit_effectively_kills_off_third_party/ |archive-date=15 Jan 2025 |access-date=20 Mar 2025 |website=[[Reddit]]}}</ref> A week later exceptions were made, the third-party app RedReader fell under the exemption for non-commercial accessibility-focused apps<ref>{{Cite web |date=9 Jun 2023 |title=Update 4: RedReader granted non-commercial accessibility exemption |url=https://old.reddit.com/r/RedReader/comments/145du4j/update_4_redreader_granted_noncommercial/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250308095224/https://old.reddit.com/r/RedReader/comments/145du4j/update_4_redreader_granted_noncommercial/ |archive-date=8 Mar 2025 |access-date=20 Mar 2025 |website=[[Reddit]]}}</ref>

==Moderator response==
A large part of the controversy was the lack of cooperation to make the platform accessible, when most of the work to make it accessible was already done and provided to Reddit.<ref name=":1" /> The main site for regular users has the required labels on the buttons such that screen readers can read what they do out loud, but they have not provided these on the moderator version of the site. In an interview about this, one of the moderators states:<ref>{{Cite web |last=Johnson |first=Ben Brock |last2=Russell |first2=Dean |date=28 Jun 2023 |title=How Reddit's announced changes affects blind users |url=https://www.wbur.org/endlessthread/2023/06/28/reddit-api-blind |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250321030311/https://www.wbur.org/endlessthread/2023/06/28/reddit-api-blind |archive-date=21 Mar 2025 |access-date=20 Mar 2025 |website=www.wbur.org}}</ref><blockquote>There are some organizations that prioritize accessibility, and there are some organizations that kind of treat it as an afterthought. Reddit seems to have been the latter type of organization where accessibility was sort of something that they kind of went, OK, it sort of works now. And in any case, we've got these third-party apps, so it's not a big deal. Right?</blockquote>This captures the lack of concern for accessibility beforehand, and explains how the combination of events created a state where the platform became really inaccessible for the moderators.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Reddit]]
[[Category:Articles based on videos]]

Consumer Rights Wiki - User contributions [en]

Reddit made it impossible for blind Redditors to moderate