My Thoughts On Meta's Recent Accessibility Fixes, and Their Continued Work With The NFB.
By Dawn

My Thoughts On Meta's Recent Accessibility Fixes, and Their Continued Work With The NFB.
By Dawn


Whether we like it or not, both technology, and social media are parts of our lives, both at work and at home. Many people, especially people with disabilities, use it to communicate, connect with friends and family and get peer support.  Techildrenlogy and social media are also great tools to use for systemic and self-advocacy efforts, when used wisely. Social media has also become a way to pass the time for people as well. I think we've all been guilty of saying "I'll check Facebook for a few minutes, and then cook dinner" for instance, and then realizing that it's 7 PM. and you still haven't cooked dinner yet!

While tech and social media can be a good thing for people with disabilities, when there are access barriers, such as an app not working with screenreaders, or accessibility regressions, things can become problematic. Meta is a prime example of this.

For a while now, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has had accesssibility regressions. It all started when the MBasic Facebook web site was depricated. Originally, this web site was designed for mobile browsers with limited capabilities. However, it gave blind people a huge advantage, because it was text-based, which made it easy for blind people to use. This was important, because the main Facebook site is inaccessible for people who use screenreaders.
Due to security reasons, meta depricated the MBasic Facebook site. Sadly, this caused some unintended consequences for blind and visually impaired people. As a result, Facebook became an accessibility nightmare for screenreader users on laptops and desktops.
Now, before I go any further, it is my belief that this was unintentional, and, this was one of those scenarios where good intentions backfired. I also think that there was a lack of awareness and/or understanding or both on the effects this would have, as well as how it was being used by the blind and visually impaired community, and why.
The reason why I believe this, is because in October of 2024, the National Federation Of The Blind approached Meta about aessibility regressions with Facebook, with the web site being the most critical area of concern. Meta has been working with the NFB. to identify and fix issues, and they are open and willing to continue to work with the NFB.

Recently, Jonathan Mosen, the diraector of technology advocacy initiatives for The National Federation Of The Blind, shared an update regarding the advocacy efforts with Facebook. If you'd like to read the article, you can click the link below:


https://nfb.org/blog/making-meta-accessible-update-latest-improvements



To summarize it, NFB. and Meta have made progress toward fixing some issues, however, there are some caveats you should be aware of. Plus, there is still a lot of work to be done. 
Here is a summarized list of improvements.
1. The Facebook Site:
Facebook has created a URL. that will force the  current Facebook mobile site to work with modern desktop and lapto browsers. If you'd like to take a look at it, click the following link:


https://www.facebook.com/?force_mobile=1



While this is great news, there are caveats. First and foremost, this site is not designed for mobile browsers, and, there may be more issues that NFB. hasn't encountered yet in their testing.

2. The page scrolls continuously, which could make things confusing, because there isn't a set number of posts on a page.
3. There's also no easy way to navigate by post. NFB. offered the suggestion of making each post a heading or landmark, which would make navigating with screenreaders easier and smoother.

This is not perfect, however, Meta is committed to making the desktop browser accessible.
This link is available to use now, so, feel free to bookmark it, or save it to your desktop.

The news wasn't all bad though! The NFB. has received feedback about accessibility issues with Facebook for IOS. I will get more into how they have effected me, in a little bit, as well as other accessibility issues, and their impact on me, and my thoughts on the latest developments.

Meta has rolled out a fix for an accessibility issue where a profile picture was getting read as a separate element by VoiceOver, which meant that instead of only needing one swipe to navigate posts, you needed to use two. In my case, I use a braille display, which made navigating a lot harder. I had to press my thumb keys more to be able to get past the profile picture, to get to the post content, plus navigating the content of the post. Although I was able to tolerate it, it was annoying, and, I'm proud to say that it is fixed!

Another accessibility issue that NFB. identified, was a bug where any text you typed into the text field to write a post was not being recognized by VoiceOver. Meta has said that a fix is on the way that should resolve the issue.
I have gotten severe bites from this bug several times. Whenever I type something into a text field, I could type the first word, however when I hit the spacebar on my braille display or onscreen keyboard, it would disappear. If I typed any more, it would be turned into nothing but uninteligible jibberish. This happens no matter what I'm doing, whether it's writing a birthday wish on someone timeline, or, making a post on my personal or the Ohio Advocacy Heartbeat Facebook page. This has happened when I write something on a link that I share as well on my personal and our Facebook page. It doesn't matter what typing method I use. I've tested it with my braille display, using the onscreen keyboard, and also braille screen input, which is an onscreen braille keyboard that you can with type on using your Iphone or Ipad.
The only workarounds I've found are:
Write posts for our page using the Meta Business Suite IOS. app, and just share links from the Facebook IOS. app.
Use dictation if writing a post whether it's on my personal page, or our page. This was not ideal because that came with its own challenges, mainly that you couldn't edit or correct any mistakes dictation made. When I would try editing it, it would just get turned into jibberish.
I have also sent people messages using the Messenger app, but, have only done that to a select few people. So, I've had to avoid writing anything on people's timelines. Or, I would just share a link, and reach out to the person if possible and let them know about what I shared, and why.
I have also turned Voiceover off and had Mom whose sighted, write the posts for me.

I have heard of other blind and visually impaired people using apps such as the Notes app to write what they wanted to say, then doing any needed editing, and copying and pasting the text into post. I was and still am uncomfortable with using this method, for fear of what I wrote still being turned into jibberish. Also, to me, that is an unnecessary step that should not be needed. I had to do this a while back when there was a bug that made focus jump around randomly for users of braille displays. Because I rely heavily on email, and write and send a lot of emails, it was beyond frustrating, and beyond time-consuming, among other things. Using the onscreen keyboard was not feasible, as that would slow me down even more. Plus, braille is a huge cornerstone in my life, and, it is part of my daily set-up. Using other apps gave mixed results. Either the bug would be present there, or, the interface was not user-friendly.


Meta has committed to keep working with the NFB. on making further accessibility improvements to things such as Facebook, and the Rayban Meta Glasses.


If you are having accessibility issues with Facebook, you can send an email to Jonathan Mosen at:

jmosenanfb.org


You can also fill out the Inaccessibility Tracker Form, which was made by the National Federation Of The Blind to track accessibility issues with web sites, and other technology. You can access the form by clicking here:


https://nfb.org/programs-services/center-excellence-nonvisual-access/inaccessibility-tracker-form


NFB. has also put together a self-advocacy toolkit, which you can use to make constructive approaches to technology companies, app developers, etc, to resolve any accessibility issues you're having. The kit includes a webinar that demonstrates how to implement the toolkit, and gives demonstrations, sample letters to send to companies and service providers, their inaccessibility tracker form, and more. To access the toolkit, you can go to:

https://nfb.org/programs-services/center-excellence-nonvisual-accessibility/self-advocacy-toolkit-and-tracking-form


If you'd like to hear a demo on how to use the Facebook workaround, the Access On podcast hosted by Jonathan Mosen, and the National Federation Of The Blind, has recently published an eppisode talking about these issues, and giving a demonstration of the Facebook workaround for desktop and laptop users. If you wish to listen to it, you can click here:

https://accesson.pinecast.co/episode/be7f8c4c/meta-rolls-out-some-accessibility-fixes-to-facebook-audiom-provides-accessible-maps-and-learning-a-language 



I'm very pleased that progress is being and has been made. Meta is continuing their work and partnership with the NFB. and is willing to continue to work to address issues and regressions. While the workaround for the site is not perfect, it's better than nothing. I'm sure that more issues will be addressed, as more testing is done. As with any new or updated thing, there's always bugs, especially on the first version. I'd like to thank both Meta and the NFB. for working together to address these very serious issues. This is a great example of what can happen when companies and advocates and advocacy organizations and groups come together.

With that being said, I do agree that there is still more work to be done. There's other accessibility issues that me and I'm sure other screenreaders are being plagued with. One issue that I'm running into, is links not showing up on posts using Voiceover. When I find a link, all the cells on my braille display are blank, and, Voiceover doesn't announce the link, it just clicks and stays silent. This makes it hard if not impossible to find and click on a link.

At Ohio Advocacy Heartbeat, we're committed to accessibility. We believe that accessibility allows for more voices to be at the advocacy table. To mediate and work around this issue, whenever a post is made about a blog entry, we will put the link in the comments section of the post. If you are having accessibility issues, and you use VoiceOver, you can do the following:


1. Open the post with a 1-finger double-tap.
2. When the post is opened, swipe right with 1 finger until you get to the comments section.
3. From there, swipe right with 1 finger until you hear something like:
"Ohio Advocacy Heartbeat author commentted, if you are having accessibility issues, you can click here, and then the link"

4. From there, do a 1-finger double-tap, or, you can do a 2-finger double-tap, which is also known as the magic tap to bring up a list of options.
5. From there, swipe right with 1 finger until you hear something like: 
"open link attachment".

6. From there just do a 1-finger double-tap, and the link should open, and behave as normal.  

There's also issues with the Meta Business Suite app, with unlabeled buttons, and elements not showing as being clickable at times. I've also seen some things that weren't labeled correctly. The chart and insights aren't very accessible either. All I see are numbers, but have no idea what the numbers are or what they correlate with. These are just a few things that need fixed. This latest progress report does give me hope though! I will continue to monitor this situation, and give updates whenever I can. Right now, we should give Meta some patience, grace, and brownie points.


I want to hear from you. What accessibility issues are you having with Facebook, and what operating systems and platform(s) are you seeing them on? What screenreader are you using? Have you found any workarounds? If so, please give a walkthrough as detailed as possible. Have you tried the URL. yet, and have you found any issues with it?  Are you having any accessibility issues on other Meta platforms? If so, where are you seeing the issue, and if you have workarounds, please let us know. Feel free to leave a comment. All I ask is for everyone to be respectful