I’m a blind creator, and I want to share my experience with Patreon’s age-verification process because it created a serious accessibility barrier.
Patreon required me to photograph my government-issued passport and take a selfie. The process depended heavily on visual positioning and instructions, making it extremely difficult for me to complete independently.
I eventually completed the verification, but Patreon then disabled my creator page after incorrectly classifying me as under 18. I am 33 years old, and the government ID I submitted confirms that I am an adult.
I contacted Patreon’s accessibility team and requested a manual review and restoration of my creator page. I also contacted its privacy team to cancel a pending account-deletion request. So far, I have received no response from a human representative and no confirmation that the deletion request was cancelled.
I understand why Patreon needs to verify creators’ ages. My concern is that the verification process was inaccessible, the result was incorrect, and there was no obvious way to obtain a prompt human review before my page was disabled.
Has anyone else, particularly another blind or visually impaired creator, experienced a similar problem? Were you able to obtain an accessible verification alternative or a manual review?