Twitter Accessibility Bots Are Being Threatened Under Elon Musk’s Ownership
Image via David Odisho/Getty Images
Twitter’s meltdown may be for most of us merely funny or a mild inconvenience, yet for some, it’s terrifying and stressful how tools necessary to stay connected to already hard-fought-for communities are toyed with in the least responsible and flippant ways possible.
Over two months ago, Elon Musk announced an intention to begin charging at least $100 a month for access to Twitter’s API, necessary for bots on Twitter to work. This is a particularly exorbitant fee for those who are basically volunteering their time, energy, skills and in many cases spoons to maintain tools necessary for the use of Twitter to many disabled people, especially the blind and visually impaired.
Hannah Kolbeck, a long-time activist and currently out-of-work web developer due to autistic burnout, already spends $50 a month, covered in part by Patreon donations, just to keep the AltTextUtil bot connected to Google’s Text Extraction Service, ensuring the tool is actually useful to blind folks by accurately extracting text from images posted to Twitter without Alt text.
Things would later turn out to be even worse than initially apparent, as Kolbek eventually shared that the usage of her particular bot, @AltTextUtil, is so high, it would require an Enterprise API access plan which costs $1,300 a month. “[Crowdfunding is] just not something that’s going to work here,” she posted to Twitter on February 13 after over a week of unsuccessful efforts to bring the issue into public awareness. As of late March, it seems the proposed price has catastrophically increased, Kolbek shared on Twitter that it would now cost $42,000 a month.
Musk’s initial announcement sent what remains of Blind Twitter—after already disabling many desktop accessibility apps earlier this year—into a frenzy. This especially impacted fandom folks who remain part of the few relatively consistent blind-accessible fandom communities such as #TwitterOfTime. They’ve been tirelessly pushing #SaveA11yBots with almost zero support from the outside. Kolbek herself, despite trying to reach out to the media, has failed to see any meaningful impact, with which she had very little hope to begin.
“I admit that I hold very little hope in Twitter valuing accessibility enough to allow, bots like mine, bots like Caption Clerk, bots like GetAltText, to continue working,” Kolbek told Paste.
It is also worth noting that most Twitter alternatives, such as Mastodon, do not have a mobile app; a must for many casual users of Twitter, especially within fandom communities, disabled and nondisabled folks alike, (yes, blind people not only use iPhones, but also the Twitter mobile app). Twitter alternatives that have a mobile app, such as Hive, lack screenwriter functionality and still do not support alt text at all despite repeated promises that they would. Not-to-mention Hive lacks a PC version which itself greatly limits options for use of third-party accessibility applications.
Twitter was once considered the most accessible online space for the varying needs of the blind, vision impaired and the larger disabled communities. It’s not easy to replace. While many blind users have migrated to Mastodon, others still face an irreplaceable loss.
I have learnt that sometimes people do not listen to facts but listen to feelings, so hear me out: if this policy passes we will be put in a very different position. We will not be able to use the app. /2#SaveA11yBots
— Bhavya says #SaveA11yBots (@bhavya_reads) February 8, 2023