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Knitting and crocheting is definitely not in my wheelhouse but since #accessibility is, youse need to hear about the redesign regarding @ravelry's website. They are a community for the aforementioned crafters. Here's a good thread by @WoollyWormhead:
1/ https://twitter.com/WoollyWormhead/status/1275415039168651264
1/ https://twitter.com/WoollyWormhead/status/1275415039168651264
And here is another by @kingdomofwench: https://twitter.com/kingdomofwench/status/1275783696331812865
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I'm going to pick out some highlights since I'm late to the game. At Comcast, we've talked *a lot* about web animations, in context to #WCAG SC 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide for the past four years? https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/pause-stop-hide.html
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As most organizations, we conform to WCAG 2.1 AA. However, this is one SC in which we push for AAA. We push for the exact problem that Ravelry is dealing with now. I get it, it's not easy to find out you didn't think about or consider something when you still had a chance to
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do something about it. It's frustrating. Maybe you're a precious designer, team or company and your creative vision is everything. But so much depends on how you respond to this type of situation. I should not have to tell you that you should care more about people,
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your customers, and/or users more than your precious design or animation that you've put emotional investment toward. It sucks, but the alternative perpetuates harm and marginalization. The design, the creative vision, the pizzazz does not outweigh the need of usability for
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everyone. What's the point of designing something for people if you aren't doing it for as many people as possible? We're not just creating experiences for the abled, neurotypical majority of users. There are incredibly few situations where I could find this excusable.
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People and companies are so quick to hop on the defensive to make excuses. There's the "We didn't do it on purpose!" Well, of course not, but you need to take accountability for what happened and how you made people feel. https://twitter.com/WoollyWormhead/status/1275440354989191170
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To put it another way, I think people are finally getting up to speed when it comes to racism. Unintentional racism is still racism. In this context, unintentional ableism is still ableism. The people accountable continued a cycle of harm that we put people with disabilities
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through all the time. @TatianaTMac speaks to this concept very well. https://twitter.com/TatianaTMac/status/1270751471919706112
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It's also been noted that they have a small team. Once again, this isn't really an excuse. I agree with pretty much everything @kingdomofwench gets into, starting here: https://twitter.com/kingdomofwench/status/1275785946135441408
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This isn't the first time I've said this, and it certainly won't be the last but we hear on and on and on about "inclusion." I know this has for some reason, like everything else, become some sort of partisan issue. Most of us are focused on trying to explain to others how
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we should care about other people. But even those of us who do care about other people will often perpetuate harm and not realize it. This is because we live in an exhausting, ableist society. (And that's taking an aside from the current race conversation that's
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currently happening.) There are many parallels. Namely, people are sick and tired of being excluded and marginalized by well-meaning people who would otherwise claim to have their backs. As [abled] creators, we need to get our shit together and take responsibility
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for contributing to this ableist machine. We can no longer expect people with disabilities to do the work, to continually shout in order to be heard. We can't keep expecting them to perpetually labor and explain their what their needs are because we couldn't anticipate them.
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This industry spends a lot of time and money trying to come up with the best solutions and experiences for *most* people. Meanwhile, people with disabilities are forced to speak up, advocate for themselves, come up with clever hacks or take legal action
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in order for equal treatment. When people come to you pleading for equality, it is simply not appropriate to say, "Oh, well, we didn't mean it.", "We didn't have the time." or "We're just a small team." or worse, "There can't be many people like you wanting to use our
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site/app/etc. is there?" That's ridiculous. I'm so tired of these conversations when they come to disability (and race, gender, sexuality, socioeconomics, and so many other possible outcomes of identity). Enough is enough. Admit you fucked up and fix it as soon as possible.
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And when you make the next, latest and greatest thing for people's benefit. Please pause for a minute to think about who you're leaving behind and continuing to harm. If I'm tired, imagine how people with disabilities feel always dealing with these ableist constructs.
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Demanding equality is also not entitlement. How do people even come to that conclusion? https://twitter.com/WoollyWormhead/status/1275625704982491138
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Speaking of conclusions, that's really all I have to say about that. We could be here all day. At any rate, I hope you fix this for your community, @ravelry. I don't mean to pick on you. This happens pretty much every day in technology. Time to get back to #a11y work.
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