Instagram Will Use AI To Describe Images for Visually Impaired Users

Lots of people who are visually impaired use Instagram.

Post to Text

While social media accessibility tools for the visually impaired have come a long way, Instagram has been lagging behind. That doesn't mean people with visual impairments have ditched the app. But it did leave a lot to be desired in terms of functionality for the visually impaired — and that might be starting to change.

Facebook has been offering an AI tool that can describe photos using object recognition technology since 2016. Today, the Facebook-owned Instagram announced that it will bring that feature to its platform as well.

AI Reader

That description generated by the object recognition feature comes in the form of a "list of items that photos may contain" that will be read out loud to the user, according to Instagram's blog update.

Instagram also announced a second accessibility feature that will allow users to add "richer descriptions" to photo posts. Currently, visually impaired users have no way to resort to alt text — a written description of online content available widely across the web including sites like Facebook and Twitter — in Instagram.

If there's no alt text, Instagram will automatically use the object recognition feature. Users can also add custom alt text to photos they upload.

A Richer Experience

It's great to see Instagram making a primarily visual platform more accessible to the visually impaired.

But whether the AI will be able to interpret memes is still unclear.

READ MORE: Instagram is now using AI to describe photos for users with visual impairments [The Verge]

More on accessibility features: Smart Glasses Can Convert Text Into Sound for the Visually Impaired