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Re: Web Analytics

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From: Jared Smith
Date: Apr 9, 2012 4:18PM

On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 2:57 PM, Ryan Hemphill
< <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Wow. That is news to me - can you point me to where this comes from? It
> sounds very counterintuitive.

Self-identification of disability is generally opposed by individuals
with disabilities. It opens the door to discrimination. For example,
someone should not have to disclose that they have a disability when
applying for a job, otherwise this may impact the likelihood that they
are even considered for that job.

On the web, while it sounds like a great idea to be able to identify
the presence of AT and then customize the experience accordingly, I've
found that this is generally a very bad idea. It would result in
separate presentations for users with disabilities that would often
not be kept up-to-date or useful (the terms "separate" and "unequal"
are typically the nexus of defining discrimination). One should not be
forced to a text-only or "screen reader optimized" version of a page
simply because they are using a screen reader (especially when you
consider that many screen reader users are not blind). Additionally,
this approach would require a lot more work for developers. Creating
separate versions of web content is rarely necessary if good universal
design and accessibility are implemented.

Jared