2020 accessibility lawsuits are on track to be close to 50 % higher than either 2018 or 2019. This article reviews a single week’s worth of those lawsuits. PACER is the go-to tool for lawyers wanting information about the status…
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…
Can’t Find Underrepresented Minorities for Tech Jobs?
Suggestions to reframe that always-erroneous statement and steps organizations can take to combat workplace -isms. At the end of September, the CEO of Wells Fargo publicly stated the following: “he unfortunate reality,” he wrote, echoing comments he had made on a video…
The Accessibility Profession Can Be Stressful, Exhausting, and Frustrating.
Stress and adversity are standard for people who have chosen accessibility careers. When you add in being disabled, that is a double whammy. This is the first of a two-part article. I have seen zero articles on coping with being…
More lawsuits filed against companies using accessibility plugin/overlays
ADP has been sued for inaccessibility despite using a popular overlay. The rest of the cases involving overlays have been small potatoes by comparison. I am predicting thatSF Lighthouse for the Blind v. ADP will be to overlays what the Domino’s case was…
The Manager’s Practical Guide to Handling an Employee Newly Diagnosed With a Disability
Most disabilities are acquired, not congenital. Helping employees adjust to having a disability is not just a kindness; it is legally required. This is part 1 of a three-part series. Part two will be on the interactive process. This article…
On hitting 1000 Medium followers
It took me 22 months, 159 articles, and 195 comments on other people’s articles. But am I getting anything meaningful out of it? Who Am I? Sheri Byrne-Haber — mother of three wonderful daughters (one of whom has congenital progressive…
Context is the most critical aspect of alt-text everyone seems to miss
This is the article I SWORE I would never write. But I have a different perspective on alt-text than most accessibility managers, so I decided to share it. Twenty-two months ago, when I started this blog, I swore I would…
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…
Convincing People to Be Accessible
I’ve broken the suggestions I am making below many, many times. I’m trying harder not to do that in the future. Product owners and people above them in the executive hierarchy frequently hold the position that current customers and what…
