June 2020 - Sheri Byrne-Haber's Blog

Four individuals in a warehouse setting wearing brightly colored safety vests, one of them a woman in a wheelchair

Job Hunting while Disabled

PwDs are 18 % of the population and 9.5 % of the workforce. Here’s how not to illegally jerk them around during the recruiting process. Note: every “bad” HR behavior listed in this article, I have had personally happen to…

Twitter and Inaccessible “Voice Notes”

I am so <bleeping> over apologies from companies for ableist behavior. Once upon a time (in tech, this is maybe 2–3 years ago), Twitter actually cared about accessibility. For a while, they were the preferred social media platform for people…

Artistically stacked tunnel of used books with one book that appears to be floating open in the center of the tunnel

My favorite books on accessibility and related topics

Since I’m wrapping up authoring my first book on accessibility, I’ve been reading a lot. Here are my thoughts on the most impactful books I’ve read recently What I included and what I didn’t I only included books that I’ve…

Game of Thrones Ned Stark saying “one does not simply create memes about accessibility”

Accessibility Memes

When I took a management class at VMware about nine months ago, part of the course was analyzing our “Via Institute on Character” results. Recently, Via Institute reached out to me and asked if I would retake the analysis for…

An acquaintance of mine posted on LinkedIn that her company had recently joined a leadership organization on disability. I was intrigued, so I clicked on the link to see what the organization was all about, wondering if it might be a good fit for me to get involved with as well. I am a keyboard-only user with glaucoma. Those disabilities mean I can’t use a mouse, and I also frequently use magnification. For me to be able to interact with a website, I need: the little box that shows up around a web page element (called a keyboard focus indicator) to highlight what will happen when I press the return key. a “skip to content” link (known as a “bypass block”) to not have to press the tab key 57 times to get to the center of a page. The site in question that I was looking at advertises itself as a professional hub for disability leaders — and it was TOTALLY INACCESSIBLE to the population it claims to be an expert in. There was no bypass block OR keyboard focus indicators, two of the most fundamental items listed in the WCAG international guidelines for accessibility (and yes, these guidelines are well-known in the country this organization is based in). The lack of a bypass block is a Level A defect (most serious) The lack of a keyboard focus indicator is currently a Level AA defect (less serious, but still a very basic violation). However, the keyboard focus indicator guideline is proposed to move to Level A in less than five months. Level A defects are the WCAG dealbreakers. Bugs caused by not following WCAG 2.0 Level A guidelines completely block entire groups of people with disabilities from being able to use your software. And missing two of the most basic of the 50 guidelines (these two particular guidelines take all of five seconds to test) is living proof of complete and total lack of understanding of what it means to have a disability and how to include, not exclude that community. Apparently this leadership group related to disabilities is a hub for disability leaders that don’t have disabilities? Think about that a little bit. The universe that this organization claims to represent doesn’t allow access to users the community that they are claiming specialized expertise in teaching OTHER organizations about. They say that their membership is open to disabled people everywhere. Well, that’s probably true, but only if your disabilities aren’t the kind that requires the use of assistive technology. This website/organization combination is probably one of the most arrogant and ableist things I’ve ever seen in a while. I wish I could say that I hadn’t seen it before, or wasn’t going to see it again, but that would make me a liar. When I mentioned this to my friend, she tagged one of the organization’s leaders, who then replied in the most incredibly tone-deaf and non-caring manner: “If there is something needs fixing let us know” One thing that I keep hearing over and over from Black people as one small piece of fallout from the George Floyd incident is how effing sick and tired they are of white people coming to them and saying “teach me.” There are few Black employees and many white ones in an organization. The Black employees are overwhelmed, and they are starting to respond en masse — “There are plenty of books out there. Google is free. I’m tired. Go teach yourself.” As a person with a disability, I feel a fair amount of commonality with people of color. I didn’t choose to be disabled. I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t disabled. Being disabled is part of my identity. I can’t wake up in the morning and decide I’m not going to be disabled. I am continually surrounded by people unlike me who don’t understand my lived experience. People continuously make assumptions about what I can do based entirely on stereotypes associated with being disabled. The unemployment rate for people with disabilities is drastically higher than for people without disabilities because of those stereotypes. Many “disability initiatives” make decisions about what is best for people with disabilities without actually INVOLVING people with disabilities. If the woman from the organization had asked nicely or from a place of curiosity, I might have dug deep to find one more teachable moment. But there are plenty of books out there (including mine, coming next February). Google is free. I’m tired. Go teach yourself. Learn how to run a WCAG audit to benefit and include the people you claim to be helping. It took me 15 years to acquire the skill set I have (plus 11 years of college). Don’t ask me for $15,000 worth of free consulting, ESPECIALLY if you are a for-profit organization. And really, this organization should stop advertising themselves as a leading organization related to disability until they actually understand how people with disabilities use software and what they need to do to include, not exclude them. 61 Disability Equality Inclusion Leadership Development Consulting

No, you are not entitled to pick my brain for free

I am under zero obligation to provide you a “teachable moment” An acquaintance of mine posted on LinkedIn that her company had recently joined a leadership organization on disability. I was intrigued, so I clicked on the link to see…

Child next to large standing globe with finger to the east of Ethopia

Can an ADA lawsuit be filed against a company located outside the US?

The answer is yes — and here is a case to watch that is going to test that theory, at least in one state Remember, this is NOT legal advice. If you find yourself in this situation, you need to…

Laptop on a table with one hand operating a touchpad and a second hand pointing to a screen

Why Accessibility is a Good Career Choice for Women with Disabilities

20 % of PwDs have lost their traditionally lower-paying jobs as part of COVID closures. Why not start over and train for a higher paying job in accessibility? People with disabilities have always been on the outer fringe of employment.…

People with disabilities control $8 trillion in spending

That figure is enormous and is hard to understand until it is explained in terms of other things. I use the figure “$8 trillion” in many of my accessibility training sessions as the value of the global disability purchasing market.…

Q.Workntine pod (photo from Business Insider)

An award-winning business product that is the opposite of inclusion

If you work for an American company that prides itself on inclusion, stay away from Q.workntine or anything like it unless you like getting sued. On paper, “Q.workntine” is the kind of innovative product people fawn over, and investors throw…

Blurry computer monitor with Dashboard tracking things like quality scores and cost for conversion

John Maeda’s 2020 CX Report and Accessibility

The report doesn’t directly address people with disabilities and CX. Here is the TL;DR version of how to align his main points with your accessibility initiatives Read John’s Medium article here with links to his short, medium, and long videos delivering…

Month: June 2020