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| Ling's Cars screencap courtesy of Ranking by SEO. |
Disabled people have as much a right to access the Internet as we do, right? It would be inappropriate for a hospital to not have entrances that wheelchair users could enter from. So why are the needs of the disabled thrown to the wayside when it comes to the web? What are known as embedded values along with bias can begin to shed light on the issue. Philip Brey, a professor of philosophy and technology, describes embedded values as values in computer programs that reflect the values of the developers or of society. This argues against the idea that computer systems are neutral. Brey also cites the ideas of Batya Friedman and Helen Nissenbaum on the three kinds of biases that can exist in technology. Pre-existing bias refers to biases present in society that imprint on the computer system, such as racial bias. Technical bias exists in the limitations of the technology itself, like a program that favors results that appear first more than result that appear later. Emergent bias is different, as it only becomes apparent in the "context of use with real users."
When it comes to accessibility on the web, I think both pre-existing and emergent biases are at play. A pre-existing bias held by developers may be that disabled people do not use the Internet as much as we do, or that there are too few disabled people to care about catering to. A less charitable interpretation may be that developers feel that coding for accessibility is annoying and disabled people should just get over it. However, malice may not be involved at all. They may have just not been aware of the guidelines and consequently only see the problems after product release. If this information was not known, it could be excused, but it also depends on how they choose to react.
The cost of a lack of accessibility may be worth more than if it was addressed early on. Lawsuits over web accessibility have been on the rise in recent years. The most prominent example comes from Domino's. The pizza chain was sued after a blind man was unable to access their website or mobile app using a screen reader. In this case, taken to the Supreme Court, Domino's tried to appeal by saying that there were no clear guidelines for web accessibility and thus had no obligation to optimize its technology for disabled people. The Court was not amused, and victory was granted to the plaintiff.
I think this is a super interesting topic. The photo at the top caught my eye because I thought it was so disorganized. You do an amazing job bringing in our course topics to your discussion, as well. A small suggestion would be to possibly include hyperlinks. This would just add a little bit more interaction from the audience. Another interesting thought would be to discuss the psychology of website's accessibility in regards to user type and interaction. Overall, the post is well-written and intriguing.
ReplyDeleteThis is article is interesting and well done! Hyperlinks, especially when speaking about the WAI and WCAG would be helpful. I think it would be interesting if you provided examples for the types of accessibility companies would need to design. You did go into tabbing across the page, and alt text, but a correlation between types of disabilities and what accessibility features are necessary would be nice. Overall, I'm grasping at straws because your article is quite good.
ReplyDeleteI have read both your old post and your current one here and I can tell you made lots of good changes! You did a nice job moving your readings earlier on and then going in depth about embedded values and the different biases in tech. I thought it was interesting how you gave examples and reasoning behind each bias that affects why developers are not creating more accessible websites. A small suggestion would be to add a bit more interactivity, like what others have said already - there's a lot of text in this post so it would be nice to either add one more visual, some hyperlinks, or some other form of media to engage the readers. Otherwise, I thought your post was very well written and fun to read.
ReplyDeleteI like the way you talk about bias in two categories: pre-existing and emergent biases. It is true that this kind of bias exist in many places either because of lack of attention or too lazy to make this kind of development as there are few profits in it. In order to solve this problem, it would be better to include people need more accessibility in the development team or have certain enforced regulation for the product.
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