Improve X (Twitter) for people who use screen readers

How would you improve X (formerly Twitter) for visually impaired users who rely on screen readers?

Context

Screen readers read the feed linearly. Images often lack alt text, threads and quote posts are confusing to navigate, and emoji-heavy or stylised text is read out character by character.

Clarifying questions to ask first

Fully blind or low-vision users too?
iOS, Android or web first?
Is the goal retention of these users or compliance?

How to approach it

Clarify the business goal and tie the product to the company's mission before touching solutions
Segment users by behaviour or need (not just age), cover the whole ecosystem, and pick one segment with explicit criteria
Walk the end-to-end journey and separate real pain points from feature requests
Brainstorm a range of solutions (quick fix, data/ML, moonshot) and prioritise with impact vs effort
Define a North Star, funnel metrics and guardrails, then call out risks, edge cases and mitigations

Framework: Goal & mission -> Ecosystem & segment choice -> Journey & pain points -> Solutions & prioritisation -> Metrics & guardrails -> Risks & edge cases

Sample answer

Segment by capability: fully blind screen reader users, low-vision users with magnification, situational users
Other users create most of the problem (missing alt text, stylised text)
Navigation cost per post is the hidden pain

Pains: images without descriptions, long threads, fancy Unicode text, noisy UI labels
Solutions: AI-generated alt text with creator review, thread summary and jump controls, plain reading of stylised text, alt-text nudges for creators
Metrics: North Star = weekly active screen-reader users; supporting = share of images with alt text; guardrail = AI description accuracy

AI alt text with creator review and better thread navigation for screen reader users. Measure their weekly activity and alt-text coverage, guarded by description accuracy.

What interviewers look for

Segmentation by capability, not demographics
Journey across read, post and navigate
Creator-side incentives (alt text)
Measuring accessibility outcomes