I had a great convo with ITP-alum Pia Zaragoza today on a variety of topics. We covered a lot of ground, so these are my notes so I can refer back to them in the future.
“If it’s not accessible, it’s a lawsuit.”
OH by a researcher friend
- National Convention of the National Federation of the Blind — pointed out to me by Pia Zaragoza as an event to attend.
- More associations to keep in mind: International Association of Accessibility Professionals, Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually-Impaired (which I visited recently on the rec of a friend), World Institute on Disability, Association of the Deaf
- Design systems — point by Nathan Curtis: “Accessible” Design Systems Don’t Guarantee Accessible Products / Accessibility is an Adopter’s Job Too, and They’ve Got Work To Do
- AI Ethics work — refer to Kathy Baxter: “Build Ethics into AI” and on Medium.
- IBM work on AI Ethics.
Some 2019 headlines:
- WSJ / Lawsuits Surge Over Websites’ Access for the Blind/ Complaints are new frontier in federal disability litigation, typically detailing roadblocks for ‘screen reader’ tools that read content aloud
- NBC / Businesses hit by lawsuits over online accessibility for the blind
Headlines from 2018:
- LA Times / Lawsuits targeting business websites over ADA violations are on the rise
- HigherEd / 50 Colleges Hit With ADA Lawsuits
Key points:
- Evaluative research phase doesn’t have common tools that support a11y testing.
- Licensing programs for accessibility that address the Web don’t address all the other emerging experience technologies.
- VR doesn’t manage experiences for the blind. Link to canetroller experiment.
