A caption you can't read is a barrier of letters.

When Instagram quietly removed the gray background from its automatic captions feature, more reels became unwatchable. Skippable. Meta claims to advocate for “‘Inclusion from day one’ striv[ing] to create experiences that work for everyone by designing with accessibility in mind” (Accessibility at Meta, 2026). So why are they excluding users from the Reels experience?

I'm Elizabeth Harris, a Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing Creator on social media, and I'm asking Instagram to bring back the solid gray background behind its auto-generated captions.

Instagram quietly removed that background, leaving white caption text to compete with everything happening in a video. When there is text in the video, or the background is bright/busy, the captions become unreadable and unable to adjust. Leaving over 430 million people with disabling hearing loss, and many others in the dark.

For deaf and hard-of-hearing people, captions aren't an aesthetic worn for praise: they’re our connection to the Hearing world *. They're how we follow a conversation, share information, and laugh at jokes. When the words become difficult or impossible to read, we don't just miss a caption; we miss what's being said. Automatic captioning isn't perfect; it lacks the speaker's tone and volume and requires users to proofread for accuracy. But automatic subtitles serve as a baseline and allow people with hearing loss or auditory processing disorder to engage with the rest of the world.

Accessibility isn't intended to cater to an aesthetic. This isn't about preferring one design over another. It's meant to make you feel you belong.

The gray background served a simple, essential purpose: to provide high contrast for the video captions so people could read them easily.

We're calling on Instagram and Meta to take two concrete steps:
Restore the solid gray background behind auto-generated captions so the words are readable against bright and busy video.

Test future caption changes with deaf and hard-of-hearing users before rolling them out. The people who rely on an accessibility feature should help shape how it works.

Accessibility is not a costume you can throw on and off at any moment. We should not be treated as an “afterthought” or excluded from conversation about accessibility.

Sign this petition to tell Instagram: bring back readable captions—we all deserve the opportunity to be informed.

*Hearing world - refers to the world dominated by people who can hear and use spoken language as their primary form of communication.
Source: Accessibility at Meta. (2026, February 25). Meta. https://www.meta.com/accessibility/