For starters, for every 1 % increase in people with disabilities working, $25 billion would be added to the US economy. Many people start the year with New Year’s resolutions: Reduce, reuse, recycle Purchase more sustainable solutions Buy local But each of…
California Law AB 979 promoting board diversity does not go far enough.
AB 979 law has a much too narrow definition of “underrepresented communities,” leaving out many identities who deserve to be included. AB 979 was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom last year. This law requires that by the end of 2021,…
Seven Steps to Processing a “Teachable Moment”
Not so much when the “teachable moment” pertains to diversity or identity, be it gender, age, disability, ethnicity, LGBTQ+ status, or any other aspect. Let me tell you that under those circumstances, “teachable moments” are unequivocally awful experiences, even under the best of circumstances.
Are you ready to be anti-ableist in 2021?
Make a New Year’s Resolution to add anti-ableism to your skillset from 2021 going forward. As I start to think about the standard “year-end” / wrap-up articles related to accessibility, this one seems pretty obvious. We need more people to…
How to prevent your conference calls from getting hacked
A few simple, proactive steps will help reduce the chance of this terrible event from occurring on your watch. I recently attended a large public event hacked by someone making racist, sexist, homophobic remarks. It was the kind of event…
“Anything else you want to tell us?” is not a valid substitute for “do you need an accommodation?”
Stop using conference registration forms, submission portals, and platforms that discriminate against people with disabilities. In the first of two articles I have recently published on accommodations, I addressed what accommodations are. The second focused on what can happen when an organization…
How people with disabilities can be ableist
TL;DR: They internalize the dominant paradigm: abled is good, disabled is bad. Exhibit #1: Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott Greg Abbott is a wheelchair user, only the third wheelchair-using governor in United States history. What happened that caused him to…
An open letter to the Medium powers-that-be on accessibility
The new design changes are pretty, but the experience for people with disabilities using assistive technology is still quite poor, especially for authors. Accessibility is the ability of people with disabilities to use software or consume information equally to people…
Inaccessibility is a disease. Why aren’t we doing more to cure it?
How many developers must know how to develop accessible code before “herd immunity” protects people with disabilities against inaccessibility? In the carbon-based lifeform world, herd immunity is achieved when the majority of a population is immune (either through infection or…
Accessibility issues that can’t be solved by tech
You can’t consider yourself accessible in the broadest sense of the word without considering non-technical factors that disproportionately impact people with disabilities There are two different categories of thought on the WCAG accessibility guidelines: WCAG is a goal, something that…