An open letter to the social media industry

To the Product, Engineering, and Accessibility Teams of the Social Media Industry,

Social media is our global visual town square, yet for millions of users who rely on screen readers, that square remains largely silent.

Despite the incredible AI and engineering power behind today's leading platforms, we are still relying on a "last-mile" manual process: asking users to manually re-type image descriptions that often already exist within the file itself.

The #AltAtSource campaign is calling for a systemic change to the way the industry handles image uploads. Currently, most platforms strip all metadata to protect privacy and save space. While security is vital, this "blanket stripping" approach creates a massive accessibility barrier.

We propose a different approach (if you are not already doing this): Sanitize, Don't Strip. We are advocating for a "safe-pass" approach to metadata. By updating upload pipelines to specifically extract IPTC AltTextAccessibility and XMP dc:description fields, platforms can:

1. Preserve privacy: Continue to strip sensitive EXIF data (like GPS coordinates) while retaining purely descriptive accessibility text.
2. Automate inclusion: Auto-populate ALT text fields during the upload process, allowing users to verify existing descriptions rather than starting from scratch.
3. Set a new standard: Move from "accessibility by effort" to "accessibility by default."

I am just one person with a big idea for the greater good, and I know I can’t make this happen alone. I have done the research and thinking to get this initiative running, but I haven't been able to explore every technical avenue. I am looking for feedback, guidance, and the expertise of major platforms to help turn this concept into a global reality.

If we can align on this simple technical shift, we won't just be improving a feature; we will be fundamentally repairing the broken connection in digital inclusion.

I am really hoping we can work together to make this idea a reality. You can read more about the concept here: https://kindera.uk/articles/alt-at-source-campaign

If you are a member of a product or engineering team, I would value any feedback or steer you can offer on how we might make this "Sanitize, Don't Strip" approach a standard.

Kindera regards,

Simon Leadbetter, Founder at Kindera | #AltAtSource