Reconciling Reddit’s Policy Paradox for Accessibility

Tas The Artist
Tas is an autistic artist and designer. They apply their lived experience to help professionals design with accessibility in mind.

UX Case Study Description

Project Name: Reddit Accessibility Audit & Core Redesign

Project Type:  Strategic UX & Policy Change Proposal

Goal: Identify accessibility failures and propose solutions that balance minimal censorship with disability inclusion.

Disclaimer: This is an independent audit I conducted as a user of Reddit. I am not working with/for Reddit. This is my opinion based on my lived experience as a disabled person and my technical expertise.

My Experience with Reddit

As an artist that is also an accessibility specialist, Reddit is disappointing. When posting my art in subreddits, I can’t include image descriptions because subreddits will mod me. Subreddits that are not focused on accessibility do not embrace ANY access features.

Alt text does not exist as an option which creates another layer to this issue.

Reddit is a decentralized platform that claims to “focus on the human,” but its user-centered control excludes disabled people.

Conflict Between Policy and Accessibility

The central problem is structural. The open, decentralized nature of user-generated content (UGC) and subreddit policies creates accessibility barriers that contradict Reddit’s human-centered values.

​Systemic UGC Inaccessibility

The platform lacks a mandatory, built-in mechanism (like an alt-text field) for users to describe uploaded images or videos.

Because of this, a vast amount of content is visually inaccessible. This is isolating screen reader users and denying them access to the platform’s community discussions.

​Policy-Driven Content Barriers

Subreddit rules enforced by volunteer moderators often penalize image descriptions as “extra commentary” or for violating character limits.

Because of this, even when users aim for accessibility, the platform’s functions discourage the necessary descriptive text.

This makes accessibility a rule violation in some communities. This can result in the deletion of posts and loss of karma.

The karma system is unbalanced. This causes users who try to be inclusive to lose karma and they could lose access to Reddit communities.

Decentralized Governance Gap (The Paradox)

Placing responsibility for accessibility with individual subreddit teams creates inconsistency. 

This leaves inclusion as an optional feature rather than a requirement.

By deferring responsibility to each subreddit, Reddit is conforming to the exclusionary practices that is common online.

Reddit goes against its main value of helping everyone ‘find communities that accept and appreciate them for who they are.’

​The Solution to Reddit Accessibility

  • Platform-Level Accessibility Integration:
    • To overcome these structural barriers a unified strategy combining front-end UX improvements with clear, platform-wide policy mandates.
  • Mandatory Alt-Text Capture & Editing (Front-End Solution):
    • When uploading media, the user is presented with a mandatory alt-text field. This field is pre-filled using AI/Machine Learning to generate a descriptive draft, significantly reducing user effort.
    • Users retain the ability to review and edit the AI-generated text for accuracy and context.
    • This establishes a baseline of accessibility for all new UGC across the platform.
  • Policy Shift Encouraging Inclusion:
    • All subreddit teams are responsible for making their content disability-inclusive.
  • Protection for Descriptive Content:
    • Explicitly state that posts cannot be deleted or banned for containing image descriptions.
    • This policy change removes the conflict between accessibility measures and moderation rules, enabling users to create inclusive content without penalties.
    • The concept of Reddit stays the same, but does not endorse excluding anyone.
  • Accessibility Reporting & Auditing Tools (Moderation Tooling):
    • Add new tools for moderators and community members to easily flag content that lacks alt-text.
    • Distributes the enforcement effort efficiently and transforms accessibility from an individual burden into a manageable community standard.

Check out the HTML mockup I created for this case study. Go to https://github.com/TasTheArtist and click on the pinned project “case studies.” 

The Paradox of Performative Inclusion

​This case study proves that a decentralized platform with minimal censorship can still be disability inclusive.

​These two feature complement each other. Focusing solely on technical fixes (like adding alt-text functionality only to a mobile app) don’t fix the issue.

As long as subreddit rules can penalize users for adding descriptions, accessibility efforts will be suppressed.

​Final Takeaway

Reddit leadership must enforce essential human access. Otherwise, their stated values are performative at best.

True decentralization cannot come at the cost of essential human access.

​This project demonstrates my ability to identify systemic UX failure points rooted in organizational policy, not just code. 

I proposed a solution that respects Reddit’s core value of minimal censorship. While still living up to its values of decentralized collaborative spaces.

Check out my gaming accessibility case study! Go to: Case Study: Space Explorer Prioritizing Inclusive UX​Project Overview

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