Here is a presentation I gave on May the 19th for Product Crunch Berlin (Accessibility edition). The transcript has been made accessible. The recording should be available soon.
Enjoy.
Moving Beyond Twitter/X and Facebook - Social Media for local news providers
The bare minimum – Risks and benefits
1. Presented by Marion Couesnon during
Product Crunch Berlin on May 2021
(Accessibility edition)
2. Hi! My name is Marion.
I am an enthusiastic interaction designer.
Since 2011, I have learned design with passion.
Driven by curiosity, I cultivate a multidisciplinary
background, focusing on usability research,
UX/UI design, and coding.
I have been creating solutions for various fields,
including health, technology, energy and
transportation. I am currently specialising
in accessibility.
3. I work for Futurice.
Futurice is a consultancy that bring together strategy,
design, engineering and data to help organisations
become resilient, so they can take control of their
futures.
In 2019, we have created a task force dedicated to
accessibility. Our goal is to enable our community
and our clients to implement accessible products
towards a more inclusive society.
To do so, we included the IAAP certification to our
learning platform, we organise external and internal
events and trainings, and we provide auditing
services.
4. What I often hear about accessibility:
We only do this
because it is a legal
requirement. How much
effort should we be
putting into that?
5. What is this legal requirement?
Signed in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act
(ADA) is a civil right law that prohibits discrimination
on the basis of disability regarding employement,
access to public services, along with public
accommodations and services operated by private
entities. Since 2016, observers could notice a gradual
increase in the number of cases referring to the ADA.
Almost 10
lawsuits every
day in 2020:
Why such an increase? One of the reasons is that
despite the ambiguous wording, this regulation is
more and more assimilated with digital services.
Source 1: Diamond SOAR 2020.
Source 2: UsableNet ADA digital accessibility lawsuits.
6. An emblematic case:
NAD vs Netflix.
In 2011, the National Association of the Deaf
(NAD) filed a lawsuit against Netflix concerning
the lack of captions on their online video, after
having asked several times the company to
provide captions. Netflix argued that ADA didn’t
apply to them.
As a result:
- Netflix lost and had to pay $755 000 for legal fees and
damages and had to caption all the videos in their library
by 2014.
- Nowadays, all videos on Netflix have captions that are
customizable.
- Netflix even provide a style guide for captions, and
explain why their standards are so high in their partner
help center.
7. Who is behind the ADA? Ed Roberts
& the Disability Rights Movement.
Ed Roberts (January 23,
1939 – March 14, 1995) was
a disability rights
activist whose efforts
contributed to the
creation of curb cuts in
Berkeley and other
american cities.
Quick chronology:
1962:
Ed is the first student in a
wheelchair joining U.C.
Berkeley, after being initially
turned down.
1971:
Under the pressure of the
Rolling Squad, the City Council
of Berkeley create the world
first widespread curb cuts
program.
1973:
Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act is passed:
it’s the first U.S. federal civil
rights laws offering protection
for people with disabilities.
1977:
The 504 sit-in occurred in
eleven cities at once, and
demonstrations lasted until
the ministry of health finally
signed the regulations.
1990:
ADA is signed by
President G. H. W. Bush.
Listen to episode 308 “Curb Cut” from 99%
Invisible for more details (transcript available).
8. The Disability Right Movement is not the story of a single man. It’s the story of
thousands of people. For instance, the 12th of March, 1990, march occurred, led to
the Capitol Crawl and subsequent passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Photo by Tom Olin:
A huge crowd of people demonstrating. In the foreground, several people using mobility aids, like wheelchairs, and guide dogs, are holding signs saying “we shall overcome” and “access is a civil right”.
9. Today, we can still find disability activists demonstrating in big cities, like during the
Disability pride parade in New-York City, 2018. Those parades are happening
worldwide, in a common effort to “promote the belief that disability is a natural and
beautiful part of human diversity” (Wikipedia). Photo by Disability Pride NYC, Inc.:
A huge and colorful crowd of people demonstrating and celebrating on the streets. On the foreground, many people wear tee-shirts from accessibility and disability-related associations.
10. Ending the stigma and invisibility of disability.
Ableism is the discrimination and
social prejudice against people
with disabilities or who are
perceived to have disabilities.
There are 3 types of barriers
coming from ableism:
Attitudinal barriers,
meaning the way individuals act towards people
with disability, e.g. assuming someone cannot
do something because of their disability.
Environmental barriers,
which are inaccessible environments, e.g. big
steps in public transportation or digital
products with no keyboard/voice operability.
Institutional barriers,
like laws, policies, practices and strategies to
exclude people with disability, e.g. abortion
laws and forced sterilization for people with
disabilities.
11. Back to the original statement:
We only do this
because it is a legal
requirement. How much
effort should we be
putting into that?
My answer:
we are not talking about a few users, although we use the term “minority”: we are
talking about communities that are being constantly shout out of the society and
are still stigmatised because of their disabilities. Therefore the law exists.
Because access is a civil right. Now the question is, what kind of society do we
want to build?
12. The bare minimum:
Peloton.
Peloton is an american exercise equipment and
media company based in New York City. They
provide bikes and treadmills along with video
courses for workouts. They have been building
key accessibility features based on their
community request.
For instance:
- Since November 2018, they added captions for all their
on-demand classes.
- In July 2020, they enabled TalkBack (Google screen
reader) on their bike.
- On their website, they have an accessibility statement,
which states that they are committed to reach the AA
level of accessibility from the WCAG, and provide a way
to get in touch with them.
13. The way to go : listening to your community
and implementing the....
Web Content
Accessibility
Guidelines!
WCAG 2.1 is the international standard for
accessibility. It is authored by the Web Accessibility
Initiative, that relates to the W3C.
If all digital products were integrating those
guidelines to their process, all pre-recorded media
would be captioned, and users wouldn’t have to
fight for it.
I do dream of a day where this happens.
14. A closing note:
European
laws.
They are 2 main regulations both using WCAG
2.0 level AA as a reference:
1- European Web Accessibility Directive (2016)
which encompasses all public sector services.
2- European Accessibility Act (2019-2025)
which broadens the scope to transportation
sector, the banking industry, technologies such
as computers, smartphones and operating
systems, as well as e-commerce and e-books.
In other words, it is about time to start
integrating accessibility in our daily workflows.
