DEV Community

Cover image for Comebacks for Five (Wrong) Arguments Against Accessibility

Comebacks for Five (Wrong) Arguments Against Accessibility

Max Antonucci on May 01, 2019

As I and several other a11y advocates know, getting others to care about accessibility isn't easy. It should be, considering the many moral and bus...
Collapse
 
scotthannen profile image
Scott Hannen • Edited

I appreciate the article, especially the part about how anyone can be temporarily disabled. Accessibility is like globalization. Not only do you need to plan for it up front, but taking it into account leads to better design.

This is the most common response I've seen online, almost always from white guys.

Please, trust me that I'm not one of those people who takes offense when someone talks about white guys. I'm not into the whole "proud to be a white guy" thing at all. Your statement doesn't offend me and didn't stop me from enjoying what you had to say.

But still, why? You wrote an excellent article on an important subject, so why unnecessarily politicize it? Does it add anything?

Collapse
 
maxwell_dev profile image
Max Antonucci

As per the "white guys" point, I'm simply stating what I've observed in my experiences. My own guess as to why this is that, as one of the groups discriminated against the least in modern society compared to historically marginalized groups, its easiest for us to overlook the needs of other groups. It takes more effort for groups near the top to remember things are different others, and it takes further effort to remember this and create long-lasting change.

So yes, I think it adds something, is worth talking about, and isn't "unnecessary politicization" for a topic like this. If I used this post to rail against how how American infrastructure has languished due to gasoline taxes not increasing with inflation due to consumer pressure, then that'd be unneeded politicization :P I will remember to add some more details in later posts so it doesn't seem like just a throwaway comment, so thanks for the feedback!

Collapse
 
amielucha profile image
Sławek Amielucha

Here's an exercise for you to check if it's appropriate to use "white guys" in an article: replace the "white guys" with "black guys", "jews", and "women". Then read each sentence out loud. If it sounds OK, go ahead an use it. If it strikes the wrong chord, you might have a bias.

Thread Thread
 
maxwell_dev profile image
Max Antonucci

See my previous response, thanks! 😊

Collapse
 
Sloan, the sloth mascot
Comment deleted
 
maxwell_dev profile image
Max Antonucci

See my previous response, thanks! 😊

Thread Thread
 
Sloan, the sloth mascot
Comment deleted
 
nektro profile image
Meghan (she/her)

And they felt like it wasn't because they wanted to add a personal anecdote. It's very necessary.

Collapse
 
maxart2501 profile image
Massimo Artizzu

My own guess as to why this is that, as one of the groups discriminated against the least in modern society compared to historically marginalized groups, its easiest for us to overlook the needs of other groups.

Or maybe it's because our industry "white guys" are the largest group by far (at least in North America and Europe), so it's unsurprising that they give most of the feedback. In that regard, your statement is technically true but it adds nothing to the story and it's actually distracting from the main point.

I could reply that I've heard the same remarks from women, proportionally to their presence in IT, but it'd be a throwaway comment as well, because I'd need numbers to support my thesis. You will need too, if you plan to clarify your statement (I'd welcome your effort).

It takes more effort for groups near the top to remember things are different others, and it takes further effort to remember this and create long-lasting change.

Sure. We can all agree on that. But how does the information that remarks against accessibility usually come from white men help us in that regard? Do we need to prepare to debate with them in special ways? Can we ignore such arguments if they come from, say, an Asian woman? What about countries where white men are a minority?

I personally don't think it's politicizing the topic, but on the other hand if you say that "it adds something", I reply that it's not clear how, and the risk is that it could flame the discussion with off topic remarks and without any deliberate goal.

Thread Thread
 
scotthannen profile image
Scott Hannen

It doesn't politicize the topic. It politicizes the article about the topic.

Collapse
 
blindfish3 profile image
Ben Calder

The quoted line simply highlights the fact that a disproportionate number of developers fall into the category of "white guy" (guilty as charged); many of whom seem incapable of seeing beyond their personal experiences (hopefully not entirely guilty). Whilst that's not necessarily a demonstration of conscious bias on their part; it is a significant contributor to why the tech industry repeatedly makes mistakes that adversely affect "minorities" - most of whom are not actually minorities. The perceived "default" ("white guy") is not representative; and so the needs of others are not properly considered: e.g. "Most of Our Users Don't Need Accessibility"...

For those who are affected the issue is political.

Read Technically Wrong if you want some illustrations of this issue.

Collapse
 
scotthannen profile image
Scott Hannen • Edited

I helped open this can of worms, so I'll add this helpful Vulcan proverb. I'm not a Trekkie and I'm embarrassed to know a Vulcan proverb.

There is no offense where none is taken.

Collapse
 
elizabethschafer profile image
Elizabeth Schafer

Thanks for writing this up, this is great.

It's so infuriating that this is something we need to fight for. I get that some people aren't familiar with what accessibility is, and still need to learn. I've been there!

But for those that do know, I don't understand how it's seen as a valid option to shamelessly discriminate against people. We shouldn't have to come up with a bunch of different angles to convince people to do the right thing.

Collapse
 
maxwell_dev profile image
Max Antonucci

I know the feeling, part of me loved writing this post and another part of me hated that it needed to be written. Especially since for many counterarguments, I had to take into account that many people won't care about how much it helps people and need to hear arguments purely in terms of business and lost dollars.

I don't want accessibility to only be accepted for the economic benefits, but sadly for many people that's all they'll listen to. Trying to encourage more positive change, to me, means accepting that and working with it when needed. Not easy, but hopefully it helps the change come sooner.

Collapse
 
elizabethschafer profile image
Elizabeth Schafer

Yup, totally agree. I actually do like highlighting all the other benefits you get from accessibility - there's a lot of great stuff that comes along with it! And I try to understand where people are coming from, rather than shutting down and getting upset that they don't care. It just gets to me sometimes.

Collapse
 
kenbellows profile image
Ken Bellows • Edited

Awesome article, bookmarked for later use.

Google has an awesome Udacity course on Web Accessibility, and the first lesson is a very straightforward overview of what a11y is and why everyone needs it, including the points you made about temporary injuries and other short-term conditions leading to literally everyone needing accessibility features at some point. I seriously recommend every web dev just take like 15 minutes and do the first lesson at least: Accessibility Overview

Whole course is here:
classroom.udacity.com/courses/ud891

Collapse
 
eljayadobe profile image
Eljay-Adobe • Edited

I had the privilege of retrofitting accessibility into a fairly large application that had omitted accessibility for version 1, version 2, and version 3.

Version 4 had accessibility. But in order to put in accessibility, we pretty much had to rearchitect the entire application from stem-to-stern. It was a herculean effort.

The interesting thing, to me, was that the application would have been better architected -- better separation of concerns, better abstraction, better M-V-VM -- from the get-go had it had accessibility in version 1. Why? Because accessibility can be thought of as a second UI.

And if you have 2 UIs on the same engine, you will -- by necessity -- have better architecture. And that better architecture is basically free in version 1. Then version 2 will be based on a better foundation. And version 3 will be based on a better foundation. (There's more to clean code than merely adding in accessibility, but just having 2 UIs puts pressure to have a better architecture.)

And most importantly, you won't need to devote 20 developer years of effort to fix the mess for version 4.

(This was a C#/WPF/.NET application, so was using UIA, and had to be MSAA compatible. And as a free bonus, we got bona fide automation capability as well. Accessibility for websites is a different domain, and has its own conventions to address the accessibility needs. I got to work in that area too -- and for HTML/CSS/JS being mindful for accessibility isn't even hard.)

Collapse
 
maxwell_dev profile image
Max Antonucci

Thank you so much for sharing this anecdote! I agree, having a good focus on accessibility earlier on can create better and cleaner architecture throughout an application. And as you've shown, the effort to make something accessible multiples exponentially the longer you put it off.

When you start off early, accessibility isn't really that tough. It's just a different mindset and knowing what common mistakes to avoid :)

Collapse
 
steveblue profile image
Stephen Belovarich • Edited

These are all the same arguments I imagine small business owners made in the push back before handicapped accessible parking spaces but all it would take to implement most likely is a stencil, measuring tape and some paint.

Collapse
 
gablaroche profile image
Gabriel Laroche

accessibility can be tough, but being a web developer is also tough. Get used to it.

Quote of the year

Collapse
 
maxwell_dev profile image
Max Antonucci

Seeing you write it that way makes me want to make an anime quote image from it.

So I did 😛

"accessibility can be tough, but being a web developer is also tough. Get used to it."

Collapse
 
terabytetiger profile image
Tyler V. (he/him)

In case anyone needs it, I created bit.ly/EVERYONENEEDSIT to easily point people back to this post.

Use freely & aggressively.

Collapse
 
maxwell_dev profile image
Max Antonucci

That is so simple and incredible, thank you!

Collapse
 
samuraiseoul profile image
Sophie The Lionhart

On the first point, maybe a lot of your users don't need accessibility because the people who need it can't become users right now because you don't have it? 🤔I think that's an important argument to be made too.

Collapse
 
maxart2501 profile image
Massimo Artizzu

Great article! I will treasure your counter arguments.

But on the other hand, in my case they also reply that "it's a web application that's going to be used internally only, so we don't need accessibility".
How can I reply to that? 🤔

Collapse
 
karenwithat profile image
Tearyne

I work on internal apps as well, and I'm our accessibility person more often than not in workplaces I end up. Here are some of the points I like to use to explain that to folks:

  • Most all HR guidelines leave room for reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities, both temporary and permanent
  • Batteries in wireless keyboards and mice dying happens often
  • Carpal tunnel and wrist fatigue from using a mouse is common for people who work with computers ~8 hours a day
  • We strive to have inclusive workforces and among those included are older workers (which many of your stakeholders might be). These workers (along with generally vision impaired folks who use glasses to navigate the world) benefit from being able to adjust text sizes, etc.

Relating accessibility in terms beyond disability but to common every day situations we all face even on a temporary basis is a very helpful tactic to make sure accessibility doesn't get left behind for internal projects.

Collapse
 
chillsunfire profile image
Sunfire

Nice write-up.
I also see #2 & 4 being used against security as well as accessibility. Which is probably why I'm taking on both as my main championing points in my Web Developer growth plan.
Security and accessibility are both needed from the start, even if you think your audience won't need/use it. Adding them in later on is always harder later down the road, which is why they are just dropped.
And yes, building security into the app/website/whatever is also often seen as 'too hard', when in fact, it's really just about considering all use cases and planning/coding for it (same for #a11y).

Collapse
 
blindfish3 profile image
Ben Calder

The most extreme example of #5 I experienced was a relatively senior manager at a company producing a CMS essentially aimed at charities (particularly in the Higher Education fundraising sector) telling me accessibility didn't matter because there hadn't been any real legal test cases (though actually at the time there already had been). I had a relatively junior role at the time but did my best to pressure them for improvements. The end result was a direct complaint from them to my manager: apparently it was rude of me to question the poor accessibility support; and they managed to dig up a few forum posts where I'd - perhaps too bluntly - expressed my dissatisfaction with their product. Sadly they still appear to be in business :/

Collapse
 
fuuijin profile image
Mattias Ross

Thumbs up for this! I am currently writing my bachelor thesis on accessibility and these are arguments we hear every day when we speak to developers.

Collapse
 
mcbrideut profile image
Michael McBride

A better article on accessibility medium.com/@krisrivenburgh/the-ada...