National Federation of the Blind Moves Away from Twitter, Establishes Mastodon Server and Account
Baltimore, Maryland (May 4, 2023): In light of recent events, including the laying off of Twitter’s entire accessibility team and changes to its API that have broken accessible Twitter clients used by our community, the National Federation of the Blind is realigning our social media presence. The biggest immediate change is the establishment of a new server and account on the federated social media network Mastodon.
As the transformative membership and advocacy organization of blind people across the fifty states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, the National Federation of the Blind will prioritize accessibility, inclusion, and the preferences of blind people as we adapt our social media strategy. Our move away from Twitter and toward Mastodon reflects these commitments. Advantages of Mastodon include an established accessibility culture (for example, the community sets an expectation of alt tags for images), the ability to tailor the experience in many ways to meet our community’s needs, and a number of highly accessible clients across Windows, Mac, iOS and Android.
“Twitter is no longer a platform we can support due to its complete lack of regard for equal access by the blind. While we do not want to abandon our supporters on Twitter and will continue to post content there, it will no longer be a primary source of our social media engagement,” said Mark Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind. “The good news is that there are new and exciting opportunities in the social media space. We are thrilled to plant our flag in the fediverse with our new Mastodon server and first account, and we look forward to feedback from our community on how to take full advantage of the exciting possibilities that this network presents.”
Members of the National Federation of the Blind are invited to submit ideas on the use of our new nfb.social server by sending their thoughts to [email protected]. We want to hear your thoughts on whether NFB members should have individual accounts on the new server, how those accounts might be used, and any other ideas about how we should post, organize content, and take full advantage of Mastodon’s capabilities.
We urge everyone to continue to connect with us on the following social media channels: