Putting external links in the main body of posts on LinkedIn supposedly reduces the reach of that post, even though there is no official communication from LinkedIn supporting this presumption. So people keep putting links in comments because social media strategists tell them to, often based on small experiments done 4-5 years ago.

Putting links inside comments reduces accessibility for people with vision impairments, impaired cognitive abilities and reduced motor skills (and yeah, creates an obstacle for everyone who has to hunt for the link).

Now I even see people who are advocates for accessibility adopting this practice.

Ironically, I don’t even believe there any longer is the type of penalisation that people describe as their motivation for adopting a technique that reduces accessibility. I’ve read several reports now claiming that LinkedIn stopped penalising external links in 2020.

Ideally I would want LinkedIn to step in here and provide an official statement on the matter.

Adding links in comments is creating all sorts of problems and, while not our biggest online issue today, is a clear-cut example of systemic exclusion rooted in the idea that we don’t have to care about acccessibility if we can reach many more people without disabilities by “gaming an algorithm” in the most awkward of ways.

When accessibility advcocates do the same, they are subtly communicating that accessibility is important, but not THAT important.

The reason I’m so adamant about this is that it’s an algorithm issue that could so easily be fixed. Especially if it’s largely based on a misconception!

So my question is this: how might I reach someone on LinkedIn who would be able to provide an official statement that could help mitigate this outdated practice?

Any help is appreciated.

#Accessibility #a11y #LinkedIn