Instagram features for visually impaired users shows us they care

Instagram is one of the most used social media platforms across the world. The app has been improving year by year and with many new features and updates coming out every two-three months, the platform is expected to take over the position of being the app that was downloaded the most in 2022.

Last year, Instagram was found to be the 2nd most downloaded app across the world, with TikTok at 1st and Facebook and Snapchat in the top 5 list respectively. The company is planning to come up with new features so that they can expand their lead and become the best social media app to ever exist.

Instagram is known for better user experiences and how they support their communities. There are many kinds of communities on Instagram which include disabled and impaired people as well. The company has a few features for their visually impaired audience so that they can also enjoy all the perks of the app.

According to a blog post published by Samer Kadamani, the company ran a test to see how much time does it take for visually impaired users to scroll through a post. The results said that users who used a screen reader took around 30 swipes to get through a single post which if you ask us is a lot. This means that the complexity of the posts that are available to them after translation is very high. It is complicated which is why they find it hard to get through the post quickly.

Instagram did not like how their users were having problems so they came up with a solution for that. The layout which the app uses went through some changes and thus was simplified enough so that these users can easily scroll through posts without having to waste much of their time in translating.

The changes brought a pretty big improvement in the numbers, as the scroll time dropped from minutes to seconds.


The second change was done to the action table where every available action was compiled in a single line. Users can create their own custom actions on iOS devices, or they can even create a separate button in between their newsfeed on Android.

These changes seem to be really simple but in fact are really hard for the team and developers to implement. The approach used by instagram for its visually impaired users is quite unique and provides other companies and marketers a roadmap as to how they can work and add features that would help their visually impaired audience.

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