Today is Global #accessibility awareness day and I think I speak for a lot of people in the community when I say I'm tired. Particularly over the last few months, the overall climate towards accessibility and #diversity hasn't been super welcoming and while I have a good support network that can remind me that I am, in fact, human and worth existing, many do not. If you receive a request to make something #accessible, from anyone, keep in mind that may very well be the 5th, 10th or even 100th attempt this person has made today at screaming into the void hoping to be seen as a person rather than a potential drain on resources. Rather tna big companies showing off #AI gizmos that mean we've offloaded a problem we didn't want to deal with onto a fallible set of algorithms, maybe #gaad should be about being aware of how ridiculous it is that accessibility professionals and consumers need to fight to even be seen as human these days, because make no mistake, we do.
I say this not to elicit pity, not to contrast against groups being literally rounded up and isolated, I say this because our plight is a lot more insidious and subtle. Frankly, if a decision is made, at any level, to not allow a group of people to access a service, venue or building in spite of standards, guidance and rules to follow have existed for decades, you are wilfully discriminating against the people you're excluding. I don't care if we business it up by saying it's a resource issue, or a skill issue, or a bottom line issue ... no it's not. It's a "not my problem" issue, and not interacting with the excluded makes it ok. So want a #gaad pledge? OK. I made this one during my #RSAC talk, and I'll make it here. Want to deliberately make something inaccessible? Come send me a message on here or LinkedIn justifying your decision. I'm making it personal.
