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Tag: Accessibility (page 6)

Street

ADA 30 Report Card

Posted on: July 1, 2020 June 26, 2021 Written by: Sheri Byrne-Haber Comments: 0
The ADA turns 30 on July 25th. In some areas, people with disabilities have made significant advances. In others, not so much. Unless you are someone with a disability or work in the disability/diversity/ inclusion/equality/belonging/accessibility space, you probably don’t think…
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Four individuals in a warehouse setting wearing brightly colored safety vests, one of them a woman in a wheelchair

Job Hunting while Disabled

Posted on: June 30, 2020 June 26, 2021 Written by: Sheri Byrne-Haber Comments: 0
PwDs are 18 % of the population and 9.5 % of the workforce. Here’s how not to illegally jerk them around during the recruiting process. Note: every “bad” HR behavior listed in this article, I have had personally happen to…
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Once upon a time (in tech, this is maybe 2–3 years ago), Twitter actually cared about accessibility. For a while, they were the preferred social media platform for people with disabilities, primarily because their framework functioned well with screen readers, and competing social media was awful. But their competitors started to improve. Pinterest is accessible now, and Facebook and LinkedIn are less terrible than they used to be. And somehow either through intent or attrition, Twitter lost its permanent accessibility team, and started relying on “volunteers.” And the volunteers weren’t involved when Twitter made the inexplicable decision last week to release a new feature that was completely unusable by people with hearing loss. “The volunteers behind accessibility at Twitter (there is no formal team) strive to do their best to ensure products are shipped appropriately,” wrote Andrew Hayward. To which I mentally replied: Are you seriously kidding me? In what way is this an acceptable strategy? How is the voice of a volunteer group within a corporation going to be able to fight against the business demands to push out inaccessible software? How is an organization as large as Twitter going to attract and, more importantly, RETAIN employees with disabilities without a formal accessibility program? Twitter followed the standard corporate ableist practice cookbook throughout this entire incident. Ingredient #1 — Silence First, there was silence. Because pretending that you haven’t behaved in a discriminatory manner always makes the problem go away, amiright? Ingredient #2 — Complaint goes viral, and here come the excuses Then when Matthew Cortland (a disabled attorney) complained and the complaint went viral, Twitter followed the silence with excuses, each more feeble than the last. The standard feeble ableist excuse that is always trotted out when something like this happens is “it’s an early version / beta / feature preview.” “Not quite ready for prime time” is never a valid excuse for software inaccessibility. The best accessibility is included from the design phase, not jammed in at the end. For those of you who are budget conscious (and who isn’t these days) starting with an accessible design means you are less likely to spend unnecessary money late in the release cycle, and also more likely to hit your planned GA date. Ingredient #3 — Apologize Then when the disability community ratcheted up the noise, the lengthy profuse apology from the designated executive scapegoat was released. Ingredient #4 — Promises of an Investigation The next ingredient in the recipe is always from executives promising to look into the issue and to do better in the future because, of course, the offending company isn’t ableist, this was just a one-time aberration! Ingredient #5 — Gushing Praise The end of almost every ableist recipe is gushing praise, frequently from the non-disabled community, thanking the organization for “stepping up” and admitting they were wrong. Praise for fixing something that should have never happened in the first place is incredibly misplaced!!! The recognition should have gone to Matthew Cortland and the people like him, including my bosses’ boss, who hounded Twitter unmercifully until someone high up in the company realized the extent to which they had well and truly effed up. Ingredient #6 — Add a dash of misdirection, smoke, and mirrors Please note: At no time did Twitter acknowledge that they allowed a permanent accessibility team to vanish, to be replaced by volunteers who weren’t integrated into the product development and release cycle. This makes the whole screw up even worse because Twitter, at one point, knew enough to have an accessibility team and either deliberately or through metastatic indifference allowed them to be replaced by a group of “volunteers.” Twitter *had* an accessibility team. Whether through attrition or intent, they no longer have one, and now they are feeling the pain of having made that decision. They need to do a lot more than say, “our bad, we promise to do better in the future.” A large donation to fund non-profit captioning would be an excellent start. Surely if Twitter had done something racist rather than ableist, a large donation to an appropriate charity would be the FIRST thing that they would have done. But somehow that never happens when people with disabilities are the ones on the receiving end of the discriminatory behavior. Also, they need to fix their software, rehire a permanent accessibility team, and implement disability training for its entire staff. These steps will show genuine remorse while reducing the chances of something like this ever happening again. People think accessibility is hard. It isn’t. The Americans with Disabilities Act did not make stairs illegal. It requires that there be a ramp and an elevator to allow people to get to every point that people using the stairs can get to. As my bosses’ boss put it in his tweet, “there was no ramp here.” The ramp for this feature would have been so easy to create. Twitter had the tech. They just failed to care. What is hard is getting corporate employees to give a when: They are rewarded for getting software out, not getting ACCESSIBLE software out. They don’t have enough people with disabilities (or other underrepresented minorities) participating in the process who will catch this kind of stuff long before it is too late to fix. The Innovation Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Design Thinking, Sustainability & Creativity Follow 69 Sign up for The Innovation Digest By The Innovation Official newsletter of The Innovation Learn more Get this newsletter Emails will be sent to ejazwiecka@yahoo.com. Not you? Twitter Social Media Equality Accessibility Deaf

Twitter and Inaccessible “Voice Notes”

Posted on: June 25, 2020 June 26, 2021 Written by: Sheri Byrne-Haber Comments: 0
I am so <bleeping> over apologies from companies for ableist behavior. Once upon a time (in tech, this is maybe 2–3 years ago), Twitter actually cared about accessibility. For a while, they were the preferred social media platform for people…
Continue reading “Twitter and Inaccessible “Voice Notes””…
Artistically stacked tunnel of used books with one book that appears to be floating open in the center of the tunnel

My favorite books on accessibility and related topics

Posted on: June 23, 2020 June 26, 2021 Written by: Sheri Byrne-Haber Comments: 0
Since I’m wrapping up authoring my first book on accessibility, I’ve been reading a lot. Here are my thoughts on the most impactful books I’ve read recently What I included and what I didn’t I only included books that I’ve…
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Game of Thrones Ned Stark saying “one does not simply create memes about accessibility”

Accessibility Memes

Posted on: June 19, 2020 June 26, 2021 Written by: Sheri Byrne-Haber Comments: 0
When I took a management class at VMware about nine months ago, part of the course was analyzing our “Via Institute on Character” results. Recently, Via Institute reached out to me and asked if I would retake the analysis for…
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Child next to large standing globe with finger to the east of Ethopia

Can an ADA lawsuit be filed against a company located outside the US?

Posted on: June 15, 2020 December 19, 2021 Written by: Sheri Byrne-Haber Comments: 0
The answer is yes — and here is a case to watch that is going to test that theory, at least in one state Remember, this is NOT legal advice. If you find yourself in this situation, you need to…
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Laptop on a table with one hand operating a touchpad and a second hand pointing to a screen

Why Accessibility is a Good Career Choice for Women with Disabilities

Posted on: June 15, 2020 December 19, 2021 Written by: Sheri Byrne-Haber Comments: 0
20 % of PwDs have lost their traditionally lower-paying jobs as part of COVID closures. Why not start over and train for a higher paying job in accessibility? People with disabilities have always been on the outer fringe of employment.…
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many dollar notes

People with disabilities control $8 trillion in spending

Posted on: June 11, 2020 December 19, 2021 Written by: Sheri Byrne-Haber Comments: 0
That figure is enormous and is hard to understand until it is explained in terms of other things. I use the figure “$8 trillion” in many of my accessibility training sessions as the value of the global disability purchasing market.…
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Q.Workntine pod (photo from Business Insider)

An award-winning business product that is the opposite of inclusion

Posted on: June 9, 2020 December 19, 2021 Written by: Sheri Byrne-Haber Comments: 0
If you work for an American company that prides itself on inclusion, stay away from Q.workntine or anything like it unless you like getting sued. On paper, “Q.workntine” is the kind of innovative product people fawn over, and investors throw…
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Blurry computer monitor with Dashboard tracking things like quality scores and cost for conversion

John Maeda’s 2020 CX Report and Accessibility

Posted on: June 4, 2020 December 19, 2021 Written by: Sheri Byrne-Haber Comments: 0
The report doesn’t directly address people with disabilities and CX. Here is the TL;DR version of how to align his main points with your accessibility initiatives Read John’s Medium article here with links to his short, medium, and long videos delivering…
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Recent Posts

Locked Out: Why OTP and 2FA Often Fail Users with Disabilities

Two-factor authentication (2FA) and one-time passwords (OTPs) have become cornerstones of digital security. For most users, they are a minor inconvenience: a quick glance at a phone, a tap of a button, and they are in. For millions of users…
Continue reading “Locked Out: Why OTP and 2FA Often Fail Users with Disabilities”…

Getting Developers to Care about Accessibility: Carrots and Sticks

Most developers aren’t intentionally hostile to accessibility. They just weren’t taught about its importance. Plus, change is hard. Building accessibility into an inaccessible organization requires more than a style guide or a WCAG checklist. Successful change requires understanding what actually…
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Why you shouldn’t trust the people who built your inaccessible site to fix it

You commissioned a website. The agency delivered. The site contains blood, sweat, tears, and no small amount of your organization’s money. And then, you find out about Title II. Alternatively, you may receive a demand letter. The agency that built…
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Eight Skunkworks Projects That Advance Accessibility Without Approval

The term “skunkworks” comes from Lockheed Martin and originally referred to a secretive team building experimental aircraft during World War II. These days, it’s tech shorthand for small, scrappy groups that work independently and solve problems faster by skipping formal…
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Embedding Accessibility SMEs in Remote Teams

The longer I work in accessibility, the more convinced I become that organizational structure is what determines whether accessibility efforts succeed or stall. Intent is merely a small component of success. Companies love centralizing accessibility teams, until time zones, handoffs,…
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The Many “Blindnesses” of Neurodivergence That Have Nothing To Do With Sight

When people hear the word “blindness,” they often think of vision loss. But for many neurodivergent people, the word describes something entirely different. Neurodivergent “blindness” is a functional gap characterized by difficulty processing certain types of information in real-time, even…
Continue reading “The Many “Blindnesses” of Neurodivergence That Have Nothing To Do With Sight”…

When “Neutral” Isn’t Really Neutral: 12 Everyday Practices That Disproportionately Impact People with Disabilities

Policies don’t need to mention disability to be discriminatory and ableist. Many systems, requirements, and social norms present as “equal treatment” while quietly erecting barriers that disproportionately exclude people with disabilities. This exclusion isn’t always malicious or even intentional. However,…
Continue reading “When “Neutral” Isn’t Really Neutral: 12 Everyday Practices That Disproportionately Impact People with Disabilities”…

The Screen Reader Stutter: Why Your Content Repeats Itself and How to Fix It

Screen reader users hate it when things announce twice. Some people call this “WCAG Stuttering.” Repeated announcements are completely unnecessary and slow down assistive technology users. But one thing they hate more than slow is ambiguous. Clarity leads to screen…
Continue reading “The Screen Reader Stutter: Why Your Content Repeats Itself and How to Fix It”…

The Other Half of Accessibility: Why Soft Skills Determine Whether Programs Succeed

Introduction When it comes to accessibility management, success is not about ticking boxes or meeting minimum requirements. It’s about creating an environment where everyone, regardless of their abilities, can thrive and feel included through equitable treatment. This end-state requires a…
Continue reading “The Other Half of Accessibility: Why Soft Skills Determine Whether Programs Succeed”…

True Disability Inclusion Requires Planning for the Unexpected

When we talk about accessibility, people often focus on the thing: the ramp, the captioning, the hearing device, the accessible stall, the screen reader. But physical accessibility is only about the presence of a tool. It’s about what happens when…
Continue reading “True Disability Inclusion Requires Planning for the Unexpected”…

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