Tone-deaf: TikTok’s Issue With Accessibility

Eat, sleep, Tiktok, repeat. Yes, it sounds like an exaggeration, but for the majority of TikTok’s approximately one billion monthly users, that statement is the reality. Scrolling through the app’s personally generated “For You” page has become second nature for its faithful users. It has become our first instinct to open the app at even the slightest feeling of boredom. The problem is: once you go in, it’s difficult to get out. If you have or know a teenager, or if you have opened the app at least once, then you have undoubtedly experienced the all too powerful pull of the TikTok time-suck. 

It’s the social media platform that skyrocketed in popularity in 2018, whose content consists entirely of fifteen second to one minute long videos. The videos range in style, from dancing and lip-synching videos, to small business promotions, to entire accounts dedicated to raising and donating money for charity. Although the effects of the app are felt most directly by users, all of society has been touched by TikTok. It has swayed fashion trends, sold out items with a single viral video, and decided which songs make it to the top of the charts. But what if more than half of the content on this app was inaccessible to you? Unfortunately, this is the reality for deaf and hard of hearing individuals. 

Though accessibility has been lacking on all social media platforms, TikTok’s unique, video-only content paired with the lack of closed captioning is what makes it particularly inaccessible. And while the app itself has developed and upgraded as it grows in popularity, easier accessibility has been consistently put to the backburner by the app’s creators. TikTok still does not have an automatic closed-captioning service for either viewers or creators of content. This leaves the responsibility of creating accessible content solely up to the creators, and is accomplished through either the use of separate automatic closed-captioning apps, or by the user manually entering a transcript of what is heard in the video before posting. While not particularly difficult, having to manually close-caption is tedious and time-consuming. Pair this with the most users’ lack of awareness about the importance of accessibility, and it makes for less than half of TikTok’s content accessible to deaf and hard of hearing individuals.To prove how inaccessible the app was, an survey was conducted on Havergal students from grades nine through twelve. Participants were asked to go onto TikTok, scroll through the first ten videos on their “For You” page, and count how many contained clear, legible closed captions and/or sign language. The results, although not surprising, were unfortunate. In 100 responses, an average of only 40% of the videos contained closed captions or sign language. This data highlights not only the harsh reality of accessibility on TikTok, but also the lack of awareness of most people on the issues facing deaf and hard of hearing people. It also highlights the lack of initiative TikTok officials have taken to resolve this issue. However, there is still light at the end of the tunnel: though there is no quantitative data, it is almost certain that, had this poll been taken a few months ago, the results would be drastically different, and worse. Though it was, and still is slow, a progression in accessibility can be observed that has led to this point. As the issues of accessibility have been raised, more creators have begun to use closed captions, and for those who don’t, many other creators will add closed captions in the comments of the videos. This progress and increasing normalization of closed captions is all thanks to the deaf creators who use the platform to raise awareness. 

TikTok, even with it’s limitations, has also provided many deaf and hard of hearing people with a platform that they otherwise would not have access to. It allows them to reach a bigger audience and spread awareness, not only about the lack of accessibility of TikTok and other social media, but also about deaf culture and the issues and prejudice that they face daily. Creators like father TJ who talks about the struggles of being a hearing adult raising a deaf daughter, or Scarlet May, who has four million followers, and oftentimes provides explanations or reenactments of ableist interactions. Both have shed light on the everyday struggles of deaf people, on and off the app. It is because of them that accessibility, though still far from perfect, has come as far as it has. It will be with their guidance that we can all move towards a better, more accessible, and more aware future.