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Re: two worthwhile reads

for

From: Denis Boudreau
Date: Sep 8, 2014 9:07AM

Tim,

I think you described the struggle we face between being satisfied with scraps and asking for too much. It’s a thin line that can easily be crossed. Of course, we all want the best accessible products possible… I can’t imagine any of us being satisfied with anything less. But there’s a difference between wanting perfection while doing all we can to support the front line into achieving that goal, and commanding them for perfection at the crack of a whip, while not being opened to acknowledging genuine efforts that may be less than perfect, but still get us one step closer.

Accessibility is a journey. And a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Maybe that step is a button marked up as such instead of using a link. Maybe it’s using heading markup instead of styled paragraphs. Maybe sometimes it’s even acknowledging to the use of ARIA if significant semantic changes really cannot be made to the underlying markup.

We don’t need to go crazy with praises the second developers and designers get one little thing right.. Maybe we should wait until they have reached their 100th step, who knows? All I’m saying is, encouragements and a positive attitude often go a longer way. Sometimes, it feels like I should change my title to Web Accessibility Cheerleader. But if that's what it takes, man, watch me put on those tights!

I also understand that for some people, this is very personal. Trust me, I get that. I have been schooled. Often. While I am not really impacted by it personally, I believe myself to be empathetic enough to intellectualize what it must be like to be excluded. And it bothers me enough that I’m still fighting that fight 15 years later. Trust me, it would be much easier to just swallow the blue pill. But the one thing I’ve learned after all those years is that you usually attract more flies with honey than with vinegar.

I realize some people respond better to the stick than they do with the carrot. But I like to think not everyone is like that. It’s ok to reach for the stars, as long as you’re willing to settle for the moon. But being unwilling to accept anything short than perfection can ultimately only be disruptive.

Ok, enough with the cheesy metaphors and movie references. I have a team of well-intentioned developers to go cheer up. :)

/Denis





On Sep 8, 2014, at 9:31 AM, Tim Harshbarger < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> While I definitely agree that it is good to praise people for the progress they do make while encouraging them to improve the accessibility in the future, I think I can also understand the perspective of people who don't want to accept anything less than complete accessibility.
>
> If you believe that people with disabilities have a right to access, then it is easy to understand why you might feel that accessibility should be an expectation and any UI that isn't accessible should be considered poor quality.
>
> From that perspective, small improvements to accessibility really aren't praiseworthy. It would be kind of like praising a project team for getting the look and feel of the buttons right even though they screwed up everything else on the UI. Also, I suspect that letting the other accessibility issues go when you know that the project team spent their focus working on other items that had less impact on individual users feels like a pretty rotten compromise.
>
> However, I have a feeling that the best approach to increase accessibility of user interfaces across the board includes using both carrots and sticks. As much as I wish people could be engaged in such a manner that they all would choose to make things accessible, I think the pragmatic view is that such isn't the case. I feel that accessibility is closely tied to societal views on disability and there will always be people that hold a view of disability that will make accessibility seem to be trivial.
>
> Of course, the pragmatic view also dictates that you use what you have to get done what you need to get done. So, if all you have is carrots, then you have to use them the best way you can. However, if you only have carrots or only have sticks, you probably won't ever be able to get as far as if you had everything you needed.
>
> And brian, I did like what you put together. It definitely was both humourous and thought-provoking.
>
> Thanks!
> Tim
>