Empowering Inclusivity: TikTok Unveils AI-Driven Accessibility Enhancements for All Users

TikTok shared three new features aimed at enhancing accessibility on Thursday. These enhancements were revealed in celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, which is recognized on the third Thursday of May (this year, it is on May 15). One significant addition is an improvement to the support for alternative text (alt text), which now employs artificial intelligence (AI) to create automatic descriptive captions. Other new accessibility options include a high contrast mode and the ability to use bold text. Additionally, earlier in the week, the company launched a novel tool for generating videos from images.

TikTok Introduces Three New Accessibility Features

In a statement shared on its newsroom, the video-centric social media platform outlined the three new accessibility features being rolled out for its users. These new tools will complement the current accessibility options available on the platform, such as auto-generated video captions, dark mode, text-to-speech capabilities, and animated thumbnails.

The first of the newly introduced features is AI-powered alt text. TikTok had previously added the ability for users to manually input alt text for photo posts a few weeks ago, allowing screen readers to vocalize the descriptions. Now, the platform is enhancing this feature by employing AI to automatically generate descriptive captions for images lacking alt text. This improvement aims to facilitate better usability for individuals who are blind, have low vision, or who process content differently.

The next enhancement is a feature that allows for increased color contrast across the platform. TikTok is rolling out a high contrast mode that boosts the foreground color of text, icons, and other user interface components. Users can activate this feature through the Accessibility option found in the Settings, labeled as Increase color contrast. This change is designed to create a more user-friendly experience for those with low vision or who are sensitive to low contrast environments.

Lastly, the platform is incorporating support for bold text across devices. If a device’s text settings are configured to bold, all text displayed within the app—such as names, comments, captions, and messages—will also appear in bold. This feature aims to improve readability for users who favor larger text or who have visual impairments. All of these new features are now accessible to all users with the latest update.