Sen. Ed Markey, Massachusetts Democrat, sent an open letter to Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Friday that criticized him for eliminating the company’s accessibility team and called for its reinstatement.
“Twitter has a responsibility to ensure that its platform is open and accessible to disabled users. Yet, you recently eliminated Twitter’s Accessibility Team, which played a crucial role in developing and implementing essential features for Twitter users with disabilities,” the letter reads.
The Twitter accessibility team, which implemented a number of features for assisting disabled users, was eliminated as part of the massive layoffs at Twitter. The firings, which eliminated over 5,000 workers, took place after Mr. Musk took over the company late last year.
Mr. Markey’s letter harshly criticized Twitter’s record of improving the user experience for disabled people.
“Twitter’s historical record on disability access was far from perfect, but in recent years, the Accessibility Team markedly improved it. Twitter’s Accessibility Team was responsible for features that allowed disabled Twitter users to develop a community, advocate on key issues, organize, share information, and engage in commercial activity on Twitter,” he wrote. “Today, these features are essential for disabled Twitter users.”
In the letter, the senator asked for a direct response from Mr. Musk. The letter finished with several questions directed at Mr. Musk, including asking why the team was eliminated in the first place and if Twitter is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Twitter did not have an accessibility team until 2020. The team was created after the company rolled out voice tweets without captions for deaf users.
Since its creation, the team has been responsible for a number of popular Twitter features, including alt-text on images and automatic captions on videos and in Twitter Spaces. Since the team’s elimination, captions in Twitter spaces have disappeared.
The recent Twitter announcement that people will have to pay a subscription fee to access Twitter API means that companies that develop their own disability features, like the popular Twitterific, will likely shut down or force users to pay for access.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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