Comments on: Kill Accessibility

By: Just Another Designr

Just Another Designr — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 15:36:27 +0000

“What’s the big deal, my mom’s friend’s brother’s neighbor’s son designed a website” – So maybe “No ROI”, “Lack of Tools”, “Lack of Knowledge”, etc., all play into the game of ignoring web accessibility. But the root of this evil lies within the human ego and innate ignorance where everybody thinks they are a web designer. Tools that allow just anybody to create a website have fostered a mindset that says web design is not a specialty. Kind of reminds me of realtors. Once you’ve experienced how f’d up a real estate sale can get when using a neophyte realtor you understand that maybe everybody can do it but everybody shouldn’t be! Same goes with website design – the knowledge, expertise and experienced needed is often vastly undervalued. Couple that with managers making ignorant, ego laden decisions, who ignore their website design experts (or don’t know enough to even hire an expert) the result is a site that is a usability / accessibility / coding nightmare that someday will, in some way, come back to bite them in the back-end. The expense of updating and maintaining a 20th century site, to accommodate 21st century technology, is often swept under the rug as a common and obligatory expense. The possibility of a lawsuit is often handled like the proverbial ostrich with his head in the sand. If I just pretend it’s not there . . .

By: Joshue O Connor

Joshue O Connor — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 10:15:03 +0000

Very interesting post Gary. I have just finished a paper for the upcoming ICCHP entitled “Is the Accessibility Audit Dead?”, and in it I echo some of your sentiments. Rather synchronous!

By: The Blind Buzz on Accessibility « The Blind Buzz

The Blind Buzz on Accessibility « The Blind Buzz — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 01:40:05 +0000

[...] Kill Accessibility | Man with no Blog – developers who don’t use assistive technnology themselves are only paying lip-service to accessibility, claims author Gary Barber. [...]

By: The role of accessibility in the usability profession today – and tomorrow « The ’58 sound

Mon, 31 May 2010 08:41:29 +0000

[...] the top of the discussion charts and which has received much attention in recent blog posts from Gary Barber and Vlad [...]

By: David Banes

David Banes — Sat, 29 May 2010 15:37:24 +0000

Interesting set of thoughts – and ones that echo with me personally. Ive posted my own response on my blog at http://www.davebanesaccess.com for no other reason than its a rambling set of thoughts and suggests that the answer is out there -(c)x-files – but that the effort to address it may be too great in the immediate future.

By: Gary Barber

Gary Barber — Thu, 27 May 2010 01:51:32 +0000

@Ben – Correct the OMG moment that is the tipping point with most designers, devs and business owners is encountering in real life some one with a disability using the web. Up till then it’s just not real.

@Steve – thanks for the link. It’s good to see some Governments taking the lead on these issues.

@David – a lot of the issue is the difficultly that desktop devs have with the rollout of features for the their products. The entire desktop model moves a snails pace compared to the web. I find that we constantly need to be reminded of this.

A new feature on the web takes days/weeks to implement. But on a desktop app that goes from months/years before it is delivered. And even then their is the uptake curve. This makes the entire process very slow… sadly.

By: R. Barrow

R. Barrow — Wed, 26 May 2010 13:58:12 +0000

Gary– I sent your article to several of my Web developer peeps. What’s that assistive technology resting on your nose?

By: Steve Buell

Steve Buell — Tue, 25 May 2010 20:47:05 +0000

No all governments have gone silent on accessibility. The gov of Canada just opened a collaborative space to the world to develop accessible solutions, http://ur1.ca/03dne.
Anyone can sign up, contribute, reuse, test, document, etc…
Features jQuery progressive enhancement, WAI-ARIA, CSS3, HTML5, as well as XHTML, Drupal and WordPress variants.
There is a lot more.
With over 120 contributors within Gov’t, and the potential that the world-wide collaboration could bring, we might start to see something change.

By: Accessibility Checklists | UsabilityOne Blog

Accessibility Checklists | UsabilityOne Blog — Mon, 24 May 2010 01:23:28 +0000

[...] week I came across an interesting article on accessibility by Gary Barber. In this article, Gary complains that behind a facade of interest [...]

By: Ben Buchanan

Ben Buchanan — Sun, 23 May 2010 14:51:29 +0000

I think the ROI issue is a big one – people don’t think it’s worth spending the money. They don’t fear being sued either as it rarely (in public at least) happens. Some companies are so big they think it’s cheaper to pay off complaints than invest in an accessible product in the first place.

I often think it comes down to whether people have had any contact at all with someone with a disability. Until then it’s a theoretical idea rather than a human reality.