A11Y Roundup, Week 4
Each week as I hop around on the #a11y-related web, I take note of the exciting things I find and put together my favorites for the following week. Welcome to week 4!
Crossing the Border While Disabled, How We Get To Next
“Since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, many of my nondisabled American friends often blithely talk about leaving the country and settling elsewhere … When I post a comment mentioning the difficulties that a person with a disability faces when immigrating, the few replies are basically ‘I never knew.’ ”
Immigration is already a fraught scenario, made all the worse by administrative decisions based on exclusion and deterrence. As we engage with the national conversation on our borders and whom we want to be, turning away those seeking asylum, citizenship, and a better life, this is a harrowing and important perspective.
(P.S., I highly recommend looking at the entire Disability beat on How We Get to Next.)
How A Screen Reader User Accesses The Web, Smashing Magazine
“We also learned that being technically accessible is good, but even better is to be usably accessible. The Smashing Team learned that before Léonie can read her own article on our site, there’s loads of preamble (author bio, email sign-up form) that she can’t easily skip over.”
As an a11y-focused UX designer, it is absolutely my shit when websites put their money where their mouth is and not only work to make their sites accessible but reach out to real, disabled users to hear how to make their websites available in a usable way (that is, inclusive). Plus, I’ll always love a good video of how any individual uses the web, with all their own habits and idiosyncrasies.
Letter of Recommendation: Color Blind Pal, NYT Magazine
“The app’s most remarkable feature, though, is the one I technically have no use for: It’s a mode that shows noncolorblind people what it’s like to be colorblind.
This setting has its practical uses. Teachers can use it to check visual aids and ensure that the material won’t be lost on a colorblind student. Web developers can be sure the colors they choose for buttons and menu bars won’t be invisible to nearly a tenth of the population. Everyone can stop pointing at stuff and asking me, “O.K., so what color is that?”
I love when a11y-related stuff shows up outside of strictly “web a11y” spaces, and in one of my favorite columns! This LOR from the color-blind writer Zoe Dubno is funny, thought-provoking, and a great rec., both for the color-blind who may want help identifying what color others perceive something to be, and for those of us who might want to experience what the world looks like for our colorblind friends.
How to Treat a Person with Disabilities, According to People with Disabilities, VICE on Youtube
“If this video turns into an ‘inspiring video,’ I am literally going to start some problems.”
The VICE “How to Treat X” series is great, and this quick little group of interviews is wonderfully honest. Between this and a few twitter threads, I’ve learned not to use terms like “differently-abled” or, god forbid, “handicapable” — to do so is to admit you think there is something shameful about disability when there isn’t. The shame is in you 👀
It’s a quick little vid that should be required watching for anyone who wants to interact with people in the world, IMO.
P.S.—
Hey! Got a tip on a cool a11y-related link for next week? Got feedback for me on these roundups? Let me know on Twitter @RaquelDesigns 💙
