User-generated content plays a key role in social networking, allowing a more active participation, socialisation, and collaboration among users. In particular, media content has been gaining a lot of ground, allowing users to express themselves through different types of formats such as images, GIFs and videos. The majority of this growing type of online content remains inaccessible to a part of the population, despite available tools to mitigate this source of exclusion. We sought to understand how people are perceiving these online contents in their networks and how to support tools are being used. To do so, we performed an online survey of 258 social network users and a follow-up interview conducted with 20 of them - 7 of them self-reporting blind and 13 sighted users without a disability. Results show how the different approaches being employed by major platforms are still not sufficient to properly address this issue. Our findings reveal that mainstream users are not aware of the possibility and the benefits of adopting accessible practices. From the general perspectives of end-users experiencing accessible practices, concerning barriers encountered, and motivational factors, we also discuss further approaches to create more user engagement and awareness.
翻译:用户生成的内容在社交网络中发挥着关键作用,使得用户能够更加积极地参与、社交和协作。特别是,媒体内容已经获得大量基础,使用户能够通过图像、GIFs和视频等不同类型的格式表达自己的意见。尽管有缓解这种排斥来源的工具,但这一日益增长的在线内容的大部分仍无法为部分人口所使用。我们试图了解人们如何在其网络中看到这些在线内容,以及如何使用支持工具。为此,我们对258个社会网络用户进行了在线调查,并对他们中的20个进行了后续访谈,其中7个是自我报告盲目用户,13个是视力强的用户。结果显示,主要平台采用的不同方法仍然不足以适当解决这一问题。我们的调查结果显示,主流用户没有意识到采用无障碍做法的可能性和好处。从接受无障碍做法的终端用户的一般观点来看,我们遇到障碍和动机因素,我们还讨论了如何创造更多的用户参与和认识。