April 2019 - Sheri Byrne-Haber's Blog

Cartoon lightbulb with the words “Treat Everyone Equally” on a blue background

Stop saying there are no federal accessibility standards

Not only is that wrong, that type of ignorance makes the person stating it look amazingly uninformed and biased against people with disabilities. I just read yet another article, this time quoting a New York state government official claiming “there…

Hand with car key hanging from index finger, green calculator with yellow toy car on it

This Week in Accessibility: Hertz v. Accenture

How a non-accessibility case could influence future accessibility litigation At its core (if you believe plaintiff Hertz) this lawsuit filed in New York federal court (SDNY) is about regular run-of-the-mill crappy software development, bad project management, broken promises, and a complete failure…

Images representing Growth Mindset (tree with leaves stylized as a brain that are green and healthy) and Fixed Mindset (trunk of tree has been replaced with a padlock and image is grey.

Stop doing “Walk Throughs” and Start doing “Roll Throughs”

Using a “growth mindset” to understand the point of view of someone with a disability may help you identify issues before there are complaints. There are two types of mindsets according to Dr. Carol Dweck. The first is a fixed…

Man using wheelchair and woman engaging in conversation in a business setting

Interview Questions Accessibility Professionals should ask

How can you tell if your potential future employer is committed to improving things for people with disabilities or if they are just #Diversish. A couple of months back, I wrote an article listing questions and behaviors that I thought were important…

TommyHilfiger.com website screen shot showing adaptive clothing for people with disabilities. Young man with missing arm, African American woman in electric wheelchair, young boy in wheelchair with girl with Down’s Syndrome standing next to him arm in arm. All wearing Tommy Adaptive clothing

Do your stock photo libraries have realistic scenes including people with disabilities?

Or are they #Diversish? Hint: It’s not just about the subject in the photo, it’s also about how the photos are staged If at least 10 % of your photos with people in them don’t have disabilities represented, you are clearly…

Child’s hands holding toy stethoscope surrounded by toy medical equipment and a stuffed bear

Make People with Disabilities Part of your Accessibility Testing Program

Do you have an optimal accessibility testing program abilities mix? Let’s say you need surgery. You go to a surgeon in your insurance network. “Sure I can do this surgery,” the surgeon says. “How many times have you done this…

A cartoon apple with diagonal rainbow stripes and a bit taken out of the top right corner

This Week in Accessibility: Mendez v. Apple

A rare defendant victory. Will this change the strategy for either plaintiffs or defendants in accessibility lawsuits and can other’s duplicate this outcome? The Complaint Mendez complained generally that when she visited Apple’s website, she encountered multiple, but unspecific access…

Blurry picture of 4 individuals wearing business clothes and a pair of eyeglasses

Is there a bias against disability in your Unconscious Bias training?

Disabilities are largely ignored in most unconscious bias training. Here’s why that is important and how to fix it. What is Unconscious Bias? Unless you have been hiding under a rock, if you live in the US you have probably…

Open laptop with code on it and hands on the keyboard

You think there are no people with disabilities in IT? Think again.

Stack Overflow Survey of 90,000 participants shows a significant number of global developers self-identifying with disabilities When you think you are the the only person in a particular situation, it is always hard. The lack of representation is difficult in…

Video window displaying beige cartoon female cartoon and automatically-generated caption “amber online like in real life you’re on the hook” which makes no sense whatsoever as either an English sentence or an explanation for the graphic or what they graphic is supposed to be saying

This Week in Accessibility: The latest in the multi-year Harvard/MIT closed captioning saga

In case you forgot what was going on (it’s been a while) here is the procedural history so far: 2015 — NAD files lawsuit for Harvard’s failure to provide close captioning 2016 — Court denied Harvard’s motion to stay / dismiss based on jurisdiction 2016 — NAD…

Month: April 2019