Mixed-Ability Collaboration for Facebook’s Photo Accessibility | Published Research Work
Published at: Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) 2019, November 10
Venue: Austin, Texas, USA
Authors: Reeti Mathur & Dr. Erin Brady
Abstract
Users of social media sites share millions of photographs every day, but these posts are mostly inaccessible to people who are Blind or Visually Impaired (BVI) since they are not accompanied by alternative text descriptions of the image content which can be read by a screenreader.
To address this, I designed a mixed-methods study involving a collaborative photograph accessibility activity in Facebook groups, and pre and post-activity surveys. I found that online social collaboration between the BVI people and their sighted peers can be beneficial to describe the context of the photograph, provide detailed text descriptions, and review the photographs for clarity (a) before the BVI users upload their own photographs on Facebook and (b) while interacting with other’s photographs on social media sites.
Methods
I conducted an in situ collaborative study activity in two specially created Facebook groups. Each group included one BVI participant and five to ten of their Sighted Peers (SPs) who they selected to join.
In each group over the course of a week, I posted 5 inaccessible images (3 personal photos chosen by the BVI participant in that group, and 2 photos from public Facebook pages) and asked the group members to collaboratively write an ATD for that image.
I also conducted a pre-activity survey to learn about BVI people’s photo-sharing practices, and SPs’ current knowledge of image accessibility and a post-activity survey to understand how this collaboration impacted participants.
A personal photograph from Participant 2. The AAT description on Facebook was “Image may contain: tree, plant, grass, outdoor and nature”. P2 initiated a conversation about the image, asking what her SPs would write as a more descriptive caption, and giving an example of how she might respond in the comments.
An inaccessible image on Face- book being collaboratively described by participants. The image did not have any alternative text description, and the AAT description was simply “Image may contain: text.” The original caption did not describe the visual information in the post, so three group members have transcribed the text from the image in the comments.
Impact of Online Social Collaborations for Alt-Text
Impact of the Study Activity on the Blind or Visually Impaired (BVI) Participants
Both the visually impaired participants found this online collaboration on Facebook to be beneficial. Participant 1 indicated that having this type of collaboration available may make her more likely to post her own photographs
“Well I will definitely post more pictures and I think sighted people would try to be more descriptive when they post their own pictures.“
PARTICIPANT 1
“My expectations were that people would do the best they could to describe pictures for blind people. I think they went above and beyond that. They gave detail on even the littlest things…“
PARTICIPANT 1
Both the participants were extremely satisfied (5/5 on a Likert style question) with the ATDs their sighted peers wrote and the amount of detail they provided.
Participant 1 and 2 believed that this collaboration would make their sighted peers more likely to provide ATDs in the future.
“It helps give awareness to peers to give additional details regarding photos posted.“
PARTICIPANT 2
“It was a valuable exercise in learning how easy it is to obtain photo content information.“
PARTICIPANT 2
Participant 2 acknowledged that this activity helped her recognize that her SPs could provide meaningful assistance in describing visual content.
Impact of the Study Activity on the Sighted Peer (SP) Participants
All of the Sighted Peers who completed both the pre- and post-activity surveys indicated that they were more likely to write ATDs for their own photos after the study activity (with an average increase from 1.0 (“Very Rarely”) pre-activity to 3.4 (“Occasionally”) post-activity on a 6-point Likert style question).
Part of this behavioral change may be because the participants recognized, through their collaboration, how useful author generated ATDs could be to BVI social media users, and what types of details might be most useful for them.
“If those of us who can see start adding descriptions like this to our posts, it would be incredibly useful to our visually impaired friends.“
SIGHTED PEER 7
“You have to imagine telling someone who can’t see the picture. About all the colors, things around it. And it is interesting to see how others see it.“
SIGHTED PEER 8
“I felt it was better and more accurate when more people commented became small details that one person missed were included by another. It was more involved than I originally thought. I kept finding more small details that needed to be included. It is easier to describe things accurately with multiple people.“
SIGHTED PEER 1
Observing the behaviors of other group members also helped them learn about how to write the most meaningful and detailed ATDs.
Follow-Up Work
I conducted longitudinal schedules with potential collaborative groups on Facebook for a longer duration. In this extended study, I had the BVI participants upload their own photographs themselves directly to their respective collaborative groups to obtain detailed and appropriate alternative text descriptions and photo reviews. I also had them route any inaccessible photographs they found on their Facebook accounts to their private groups to get the actual context and content of the photographs.
I believe that this follow-up study has helped us determine the manner in which the BVI people route their own photographs and the inaccessible images they find themselves. It also gave me the opportunity to identify the limitations on time lag and delay, the emotions, and empathy that is directly related to such collaborations.