6 ms·

How blind people use Instagram [video]

131 points by Charlesmigli 14y ago

bluetidepro 14y ago
> "Why am I holding the thing up to my face like I can look through the thing is beyond me..." hehehe I chuckled as his joke here. I think this is really awesome. It seems so rare to see these types of fun and inviting (and what I would call) success stories around the web, when it comes to accessibility. Hopefully more videos like this surface so that other developers/designers see why it's worth going the extra mile with accessibility! And that doing so, means all types of users can use your app, even people you thought never would!
jheriko 14y ago
lol. i initially read this as, how to blind people, use Instagram.
jasonkostempski 14y ago
Are there any examples of accessibility features that actually make usage more efficient? Not for Instagram, I mean in general.
- DanBC 14y ago
  "Separate all links with more than whitespace" makes it easier for everyone to find and click the correct link, rather than hesitantly mousing over a link and hoping it's right, or having to slow down and carefully click because the target is small and close to something else. "Use a sensible default font size" - yes, people can zoom the page. But starting with a sensible large font size means they don't have to. That means your careful layout doesn't get moved around and possibly broken. "Use a sensible set of high contrast colours; consider an easy way to switch to light on dark" - offing low contrast colours for text and background means that people are going to either not read, or are going to use scripts to replace all your colours. Some people prefer (or need) light on dark, and will use scripts to replace your colours. Your nice design will end up very different if I get to pick my own colours. These doesn't sound like much, but there's a bunch of little optimisations that help accessibility, but which also help everyone. Tweaking a webpage before I start reading it may only take a few seconds. But first impressions count, and if my first impression is irritation at the bloody silly choice of light grey on grey colours and a bit of fiddling to make it readable I don't have a good first impression. Also, compare the time it takes to make it readable with the time it takes to make a page load, and the efforts that people go to when they improve page load times. Half a second makes a big difference.
- xbryanx 14y ago
  This is the ideal behind universal accessibility design. For instance, when you're in a loud and crowded place a person with average hearing abilities might have the same needs as a deaf person when watching a video. That's why museums regularly use open captions on video screens since they benefit everyone, not just the deaf. As a side note, I bet this guy gets fantastic battery life out of his mobile device, since he can set the brightness to the lowest setting possible all the time. I guess I'm assuming that all that Siri and speaker amp usage doesn't drain the battery more.
  - chrmaury 14y ago
    You're right. iOS has a feature called screen curtain, which turns your screen off while using Voice Over. Great for battery life (and privacy).
aw3c2 14y ago
"Blogspam" (blame the submitter, not the blog) for http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1e7ZCKQfMA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1e7ZCKQfMA tl;dw: iOS has a mode for vision impaired users where buttons are spoken when touched and a double touch activates them. The instagram app supports that. The video is fun, though it reeks of "viral" ad.
- danso 14y ago
  In defense of the submitter...I actually prefer blog postings with embeds of the videos...the normal youtube page is just so distracting with its right-hand rail. But in this case, the blog post could've added a little more context besides just the video...
- bradleyland 14y ago
  It's a bit of a stretch to call Kottke.org "blogspam". Jason has been a consistent source of interesting content for years. He deserves credit for the service he provides: finding and sharing interesting content.
  - DanBC 14y ago
    This link has one single embedded YouTube video, and the text "So we'll just take a picture of the crew. Why I'm holding the thing up to my face like I can look through the thing is beyond me, but here we go. His Instagram feed is available here. (via ★precipice)" It also has some ads. How is that anything other than blogspam? The linked blog adds nothing of value to the raw YouTube link; there's no commentary or critique or links to other relevant content or anything.
    - mbreese 14y ago
      For one thing, because it's Jason Kottke. He finds interesting things online and posts them with minimal commentary. He's done this for many years, and is a good source for interesting things online. He is less of an aggregator and more of a curator.
pella 14y ago
original Link: http://blindfilmcritic.com/archives/2689 http://blindfilmcritic.com/archives/2689 + 2 more videos: How Blind People Use The iPhone 4S – Twitter & YouTube Apps How Blind People Use The iPhone 4S – Facebook App
nycacorp 14y ago
well as a visually impaired Web user, with almost every tech device out there and working for a Content Delivery Network. I can say that more Webmasters need to take accessibility and responsive design into consideration when designing and creating their sites. Not everything can be for SEO and usability purposes.
jimray 14y ago
This is a great story and inspiring and hits all the right "feel good" buttons. BUT. Isn't the story really "how blind people use the accessibility features of iOS"? Accessibility, specifically Voice Over, is a core component of iOS and pretty straightforward for developers to implement. The new Flickr app, for instance, seems to offer many of the same accessibility features shown in the video, though their implementation could use a little work. The Instagram guys should be commended for adding the accessibility hooks but, really, that's all they did. That's a day's worth of work. Can anyone speak to how Instagram works for the blind on an Android device?
- PhearTheCeal 14y ago
  I believe the big role Instagram played in this video is the use of photo comments. After he uploaded a picture, people would comment on it to explain what it was and how he did. So I see it as a way for blind people to capture moments around them without walking around and touching everything.
- conradev 14y ago
  > pretty straightforward for developers to implement Although true, many developers don't even take the time out to do it[1]. This video demonstrates that the creators of Instagram did take the time out to do it, even though a lot of interaction their application is based on vision. [1] http://mattgemmell.com/2012/10/26/ios-accessibility-heroes-and-villains/ http://mattgemmell.com/2012/10/26/ios-accessibility-heroes-a...
alpb 14y ago
Are we know of any famous Instagram users making use of this great feature due to their condition? I'd love to follow someone who cannot see but take pictures.
newishuser 14y ago
His YouTube channel is very entertaining. https://www.youtube.com/user/tommyedisonxp https://www.youtube.com/user/tommyedisonxp Tommy has a great sense of humor and explains some interesting aspects of being blind since birth like: Color: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59YN8_lg6-U&list=PL832E5FEADAEA8AEE&index=2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59YN8_lg6-U&list=PL832E5... Cooking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umiOuVA7PEc&list=PL832E5FEADAEA8AEE&index=4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umiOuVA7PEc&list=PL832E5... Using an ATM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzah0A6IC5o&list=PL832E5FEADAEA8AEE&index=14 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzah0A6IC5o&list=PL832E5...
- macey 14y ago
  This guy is great! Thanks for sharing. Re: color, his story about buying a car made me laugh. "Heather mist? What? Nothing else in the world is 'heather mist.'"
AUmrysh 14y ago
I've become more and more interested over the years in computer usability for the blind and vision impaired. I still feel like there's a lot of room to improve these things. Being able to navigate a web page and interact with it just seems like it would be so much more difficult without the ability to see it.
- jcampbell1 14y ago
  Don't waste your time becoming "interested". Just start doing it. Learn to put your OS in blind person mode, and spend an hour learning how to use it. It is amazing how fast and easy it is to fix various problems. For instance, in HackerNews the upvote/downvote links are voiced as "link link" on my Mac. That is not very helpful to a blind person. A trivial change could make that voiced as "link-upvote, link-downvote".
ja27 14y ago
We've gotten a bit of feedback from blind (and non-blind but "low vision") users of our educational apps. We even got requests for better Voiceover support for an app that we thought was so visual that someone with impaired vision wouldn't get any use out of it. Turns out that there are a lot of vision-impaired parents that like to use apps with their normal-vision children. That's something that hadn't occurred to us.
frozenport 14y ago
Does he have a bookcase in the background?
- hackmiester 14y ago
  Braille books, I'd imagine.
graiz 14y ago
VoiceOver is awesome. I wrote a guide for people who can see. I use it all the time. http://www.raizlabs.com/blog/2012/12/18/ios-voiceover-getting-started-guide/ http://www.raizlabs.com/blog/2012/12/18/ios-voiceover-gettin...
simpsn 14y ago
Awesome and inspiring story!
vpdn 14y ago
The integrated iPhone camera app even tells you about the objects within the picture. "I simply gawped when one blind woman pulled out an iPhone then snapped a perfect shot, guided by the built-in Camera app [..] One face. Small face. Face near right edge. Autofocussed." http://svan.ca/blog/2012/blind/ http://svan.ca/blog/2012/blind/

131 points by Charlesmigli 14y ago

> "Why am I holding the thing up to my face like I can look through the thing is beyond me..." hehehe I chuckled as his joke here. I think this is really awesome. It seems so rare to see these types of fun and inviting (and what I would call) success stories around the web, when it comes to accessibility. Hopefully more videos like this surface so that other developers/designers see why it's worth going the extra mile with accessibility! And that doing so, means all types of users can use your app, even people you thought never would!

jheriko 14y ago

lol. i initially read this as, how to blind people, use Instagram.

jasonkostempski 14y ago

Are there any examples of accessibility features that actually make usage more efficient? Not for Instagram, I mean in general.

DanBC 14y ago
"Separate all links with more than whitespace" makes it easier for everyone to find and click the correct link, rather than hesitantly mousing over a link and hoping it's right, or having to slow down and carefully click because the target is small and close to something else. "Use a sensible default font size" - yes, people can zoom the page. But starting with a sensible large font size means they don't have to. That means your careful layout doesn't get moved around and possibly broken. "Use a sensible set of high contrast colours; consider an easy way to switch to light on dark" - offing low contrast colours for text and background means that people are going to either not read, or are going to use scripts to replace all your colours. Some people prefer (or need) light on dark, and will use scripts to replace your colours. Your nice design will end up very different if I get to pick my own colours. These doesn't sound like much, but there's a bunch of little optimisations that help accessibility, but which also help everyone. Tweaking a webpage before I start reading it may only take a few seconds. But first impressions count, and if my first impression is irritation at the bloody silly choice of light grey on grey colours and a bit of fiddling to make it readable I don't have a good first impression. Also, compare the time it takes to make it readable with the time it takes to make a page load, and the efforts that people go to when they improve page load times. Half a second makes a big difference.
xbryanx 14y ago
This is the ideal behind universal accessibility design. For instance, when you're in a loud and crowded place a person with average hearing abilities might have the same needs as a deaf person when watching a video. That's why museums regularly use open captions on video screens since they benefit everyone, not just the deaf. As a side note, I bet this guy gets fantastic battery life out of his mobile device, since he can set the brightness to the lowest setting possible all the time. I guess I'm assuming that all that Siri and speaker amp usage doesn't drain the battery more.
- chrmaury 14y ago
  You're right. iOS has a feature called screen curtain, which turns your screen off while using Voice Over. Great for battery life (and privacy).

aw3c2 14y ago

"Blogspam" (blame the submitter, not the blog) for http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1e7ZCKQfMA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1e7ZCKQfMA tl;dw: iOS has a mode for vision impaired users where buttons are spoken when touched and a double touch activates them. The instagram app supports that. The video is fun, though it reeks of "viral" ad.

danso 14y ago
In defense of the submitter...I actually prefer blog postings with embeds of the videos...the normal youtube page is just so distracting with its right-hand rail. But in this case, the blog post could've added a little more context besides just the video...
bradleyland 14y ago
It's a bit of a stretch to call Kottke.org "blogspam". Jason has been a consistent source of interesting content for years. He deserves credit for the service he provides: finding and sharing interesting content.
- DanBC 14y ago
  This link has one single embedded YouTube video, and the text "So we'll just take a picture of the crew. Why I'm holding the thing up to my face like I can look through the thing is beyond me, but here we go. His Instagram feed is available here. (via ★precipice)" It also has some ads. How is that anything other than blogspam? The linked blog adds nothing of value to the raw YouTube link; there's no commentary or critique or links to other relevant content or anything.
  - mbreese 14y ago
    For one thing, because it's Jason Kottke. He finds interesting things online and posts them with minimal commentary. He's done this for many years, and is a good source for interesting things online. He is less of an aggregator and more of a curator.

pella 14y ago

original Link: http://blindfilmcritic.com/archives/2689 http://blindfilmcritic.com/archives/2689 + 2 more videos: How Blind People Use The iPhone 4S – Twitter & YouTube Apps How Blind People Use The iPhone 4S – Facebook App

nycacorp 14y ago

well as a visually impaired Web user, with almost every tech device out there and working for a Content Delivery Network. I can say that more Webmasters need to take accessibility and responsive design into consideration when designing and creating their sites. Not everything can be for SEO and usability purposes.

jimray 14y ago

This is a great story and inspiring and hits all the right "feel good" buttons. BUT. Isn't the story really "how blind people use the accessibility features of iOS"? Accessibility, specifically Voice Over, is a core component of iOS and pretty straightforward for developers to implement. The new Flickr app, for instance, seems to offer many of the same accessibility features shown in the video, though their implementation could use a little work. The Instagram guys should be commended for adding the accessibility hooks but, really, that's all they did. That's a day's worth of work. Can anyone speak to how Instagram works for the blind on an Android device?

PhearTheCeal 14y ago
I believe the big role Instagram played in this video is the use of photo comments. After he uploaded a picture, people would comment on it to explain what it was and how he did. So I see it as a way for blind people to capture moments around them without walking around and touching everything.
conradev 14y ago
> pretty straightforward for developers to implement Although true, many developers don't even take the time out to do it[1]. This video demonstrates that the creators of Instagram did take the time out to do it, even though a lot of interaction their application is based on vision. [1] http://mattgemmell.com/2012/10/26/ios-accessibility-heroes-and-villains/ http://mattgemmell.com/2012/10/26/ios-accessibility-heroes-a...

alpb 14y ago

Are we know of any famous Instagram users making use of this great feature due to their condition? I'd love to follow someone who cannot see but take pictures.

newishuser 14y ago

His YouTube channel is very entertaining. https://www.youtube.com/user/tommyedisonxp https://www.youtube.com/user/tommyedisonxp Tommy has a great sense of humor and explains some interesting aspects of being blind since birth like: Color: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59YN8_lg6-U&list=PL832E5FEADAEA8AEE&index=2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59YN8_lg6-U&list=PL832E5... Cooking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umiOuVA7PEc&list=PL832E5FEADAEA8AEE&index=4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umiOuVA7PEc&list=PL832E5... Using an ATM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzah0A6IC5o&list=PL832E5FEADAEA8AEE&index=14 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzah0A6IC5o&list=PL832E5...

macey 14y ago
This guy is great! Thanks for sharing. Re: color, his story about buying a car made me laugh. "Heather mist? What? Nothing else in the world is 'heather mist.'"

AUmrysh 14y ago

I've become more and more interested over the years in computer usability for the blind and vision impaired. I still feel like there's a lot of room to improve these things. Being able to navigate a web page and interact with it just seems like it would be so much more difficult without the ability to see it.

jcampbell1 14y ago
Don't waste your time becoming "interested". Just start doing it. Learn to put your OS in blind person mode, and spend an hour learning how to use it. It is amazing how fast and easy it is to fix various problems. For instance, in HackerNews the upvote/downvote links are voiced as "link link" on my Mac. That is not very helpful to a blind person. A trivial change could make that voiced as "link-upvote, link-downvote".

ja27 14y ago

We've gotten a bit of feedback from blind (and non-blind but "low vision") users of our educational apps. We even got requests for better Voiceover support for an app that we thought was so visual that someone with impaired vision wouldn't get any use out of it. Turns out that there are a lot of vision-impaired parents that like to use apps with their normal-vision children. That's something that hadn't occurred to us.

frozenport 14y ago

Does he have a bookcase in the background?

hackmiester 14y ago
Braille books, I'd imagine.

graiz 14y ago

VoiceOver is awesome. I wrote a guide for people who can see. I use it all the time. http://www.raizlabs.com/blog/2012/12/18/ios-voiceover-getting-started-guide/ http://www.raizlabs.com/blog/2012/12/18/ios-voiceover-gettin...

simpsn 14y ago

Awesome and inspiring story!

vpdn 14y ago

The integrated iPhone camera app even tells you about the objects within the picture. "I simply gawped when one blind woman pulled out an iPhone then snapped a perfect shot, guided by the built-in Camera app [..] One face. Small face. Face near right edge. Autofocussed." http://svan.ca/blog/2012/blind/ http://svan.ca/blog/2012/blind/