Facebook tool describes photos for blind users

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Billions of photos flow through social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter every day, but for the blind and visually impaired, navigating these networks can be tricky.

It’s getting easier.

Menlo Park-based Facebook is releasing a new feature that describes photos for the blind and visually impaired. Harnessing the power of artificial intelligence, the feature is being rolled out first to people who use screen readers set to English on Apple devices such as an iPhone or iPad. Facebook, which has been testing the new feature, said it plans to add it to more devices and incorporate different languages.

To access the tool, people turn on the device’s VoiceOver feature and then open the Facebook app. When they scroll through photos, they’ll hear a description of the image.

“While visual content provides a fun and expressive way for people to communicate online, consuming and creating it poses challenges for people who are blind or severely visually impaired,” Facebook said in a statement. “As a result, some people may feel frustrated and excluded because they cannot fully participate in the conversations around photos that take place on Facebook.”

The tool identifies objects that are commonly shared in photos on Facebook such as ocean, water, basketball, ice cream or baby.

More than 2 billion photos are shared across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, the company said. Worldwide, more than 39 million people are blind and more than 246 million have a severe visual impairment.