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| Ling's Cars screencap courtesy of Ranking by SEO. |
I'd say most people can understand that disabled people have as much a right to access as we do. So why is web accessibility so often blown off? I think it has to so with bias. Batya Friedman and Helen Nissenbaum, both professors in information science have defined three kinds of biases that can exist in technology: pre-existing, technical, and emergent. I think an argument can be made for both pre-existing and emergent biases at play. A pre-existing bias possibly held by Domino's and/or its developers that disabled people would not use their services, or that there are so few disabled people that considering their needs was trivial. The reasoning may not be so malicious, however. Domino's just may not have been aware of the web accessibility guidelines. Yet, their attempt at defending their accessibility shortcomings is quite telling.
This post reminds me of when I took an SI class last semster and we had to have accessability tests for the webpages we made. We had to pass them in order to get a decent grade for our projects. I'm glad that your post brought up the biases and issues that come along with lack of accessability on websites. Maybe to improve your post, you could speak on more examples of the issues with accessibility on websites that are out there.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you talked about the three different kinds of biases in your blog post! I would agree that one of the main reasons why web accessibility is not currently as important as it should be is that people don't think there are enough disabled people to make them update their websites/apps. I believe this is a form of ableism. Just because people do not have obvious ailments does not mean they are fully abled. There might be a bigger population of people who need extra assistance than developers think, but developers are just unaware because of their own selfishness and biases. To summarize, accessibility should become a fore front of application development because many people need extra help accessing a site, and it is not their fault that they need this assistance. By not having better web accessibility guidelines, we are punishing and stunting those who do not deserve to be punished or stunted.
ReplyDeleteHi.I think the topic you have discussed in your blog post is really important. The format of your blog post was easy to read and the visual aid was appealing. I like how your post was thought provoking and conversational. And I agree with you that people with disabilities should have the access to use applications and websites easily. The technology and ability to make websites and applications accessible are there. So I think it is a matter of lack of importance that people are putting on the making of accessible websites and applications. ONe thing I would note would be to try to focus on a main reading topic or idea to relate your discussion post to.
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