The worst response that an organization can deliver to a disabled person (or someone advocating for disabled people) is that their request is annoying. Any response that contains an element of dismissal, minimization of the problem, or outright ignoring the…
Never make decisions for your users. Either make decisions with your users, or build enough flexibility that your users can make the decisions for themselves
Making decisions for your users leads to frustration, especially for people with disabilities who will waste a lot of time trying to figure out how to undo the decisions you made if it is not what they wanted. Start with…
Accessibility Meme: he intersection of “Ouch, that hurts” and “Damn, that’s so true.”
This week’s accessibility meme is at the intersection of “Ouch, that hurts” and “Damn, that’s so true.” If you ask me to point at one single problem behind the 97% rate of inaccessible websites is as simple as this: developers…
When someone tells you something is impossible because of your disability… Take that as an express invitation to show them how it’s done
Anyone who has had a disability for any length of time can recount dozens of times they’ve been told either a) something couldn’t be done to include them or b) the person with a disability shouldn’t be trying to do…
When organizations do not bake accessibility reviews into its entire management process for both code and content, remediated digital properties are all but guaranteed to backslide into inaccessibility.
True story. In 2010, I went to an accessibility conference in Oakland. I had an emphatic conversation over lunch with some folx at my table about how important it was to embed accessibility into every part of an organization because…
Accessibility Meme: Do You Know AODA Differs from ADA?
IF you sell outside the United States, chances are you do business in Canada. And if you do business in Canada, chances are you do business in Ontario, which contains almost 40 % of the Canadian population. But do you…
The First rule of Providing Support to Customers with Disabilities is to Have Multiple Modalities that Use Different Senses
Making things difficult for your customers is an excellent way to drive them to your competitors. If your customer support solely relies on voice communication, you’re likely losing potential customers who cannot or prefer not to communicate in this way.…
Accessibility Meme: Did you know that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has no automatic enforcement provisions?
Did you know that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has no automatic enforcement provisions? This vital piece of civil rights legislation relies almost entirely on individuals identifying and reporting non-compliance issues. Here is why this self-enforcement aspect is crucial…
Accessibility is like Oxygen. Without it, Disabled People Cannot Thrive
Sometimes I complain publicly about something inaccessible, and I’m told I’m overreacting, either directly or indirectly. This takes the form of statements that start with words like: “Why didn’t you just (blah blah blah)”: where “blah blah blah” is something…
Deconstructing Accessibility Statements
This is MY interpretation of the accessibility statement legal-ese. I am not your lawyer. You need to make up your own mind. With your own lawyer, who is someone other than me. I received the following question after writing an…