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Tag: Equality

What one wheelchair user thinks about being called “wheelchair-bound”Young man in a wheelchair tied to it with a rope
Twitter and Inaccessible “Voice Notes”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 with disabilities, primarily because their framework functioned well with screen readers, and competing social media was awful. But their competitors started to improve. Pinterest is accessible now, and Facebook and LinkedIn are less terrible than they used to be. And somehow either through intent or attrition, Twitter lost its permanent accessibility team, and started relying on “volunteers.” And the volunteers weren’t involved when Twitter made the inexplicable decision last week to release a new feature that was completely unusable by people with hearing loss. “The volunteers behind accessibility at Twitter (there is no formal team) strive to do their best to ensure products are shipped appropriately,” wrote Andrew Hayward. To which I mentally replied: Are you seriously kidding me? In what way is this an acceptable strategy? How is the voice of a volunteer group within a corporation going to be able to fight against the business demands to push out inaccessible software? How is an organization as large as Twitter going to attract and, more importantly, RETAIN employees with disabilities without a formal accessibility program? Twitter followed the standard corporate ableist practice cookbook throughout this entire incident. Ingredient #1 — Silence First, there was silence. Because pretending that you haven’t behaved in a discriminatory manner always makes the problem go away, amiright? Ingredient #2 — Complaint goes viral, and here come the excuses Then when Matthew Cortland (a disabled attorney) complained and the complaint went viral, Twitter followed the silence with excuses, each more feeble than the last. The standard feeble ableist excuse that is always trotted out when something like this happens is “it’s an early version / beta / feature preview.” “Not quite ready for prime time” is never a valid excuse for software inaccessibility. The best accessibility is included from the design phase, not jammed in at the end. For those of you who are budget conscious (and who isn’t these days) starting with an accessible design means you are less likely to spend unnecessary money late in the release cycle, and also more likely to hit your planned GA date. Ingredient #3 — Apologize Then when the disability community ratcheted up the noise, the lengthy profuse apology from the designated executive scapegoat was released. Ingredient #4 — Promises of an Investigation The next ingredient in the recipe is always from executives promising to look into the issue and to do better in the future because, of course, the offending company isn’t ableist, this was just a one-time aberration! Ingredient #5 — Gushing Praise The end of almost every ableist recipe is gushing praise, frequently from the non-disabled community, thanking the organization for “stepping up” and admitting they were wrong. Praise for fixing something that should have never happened in the first place is incredibly misplaced!!! The recognition should have gone to Matthew Cortland and the people like him, including my bosses’ boss, who hounded Twitter unmercifully until someone high up in the company realized the extent to which they had well and truly effed up. Ingredient #6 — Add a dash of misdirection, smoke, and mirrors Please note: At no time did Twitter acknowledge that they allowed a permanent accessibility team to vanish, to be replaced by volunteers who weren’t integrated into the product development and release cycle. This makes the whole screw up even worse because Twitter, at one point, knew enough to have an accessibility team and either deliberately or through metastatic indifference allowed them to be replaced by a group of “volunteers.” Twitter *had* an accessibility team. Whether through attrition or intent, they no longer have one, and now they are feeling the pain of having made that decision. They need to do a lot more than say, “our bad, we promise to do better in the future.” A large donation to fund non-profit captioning would be an excellent start. Surely if Twitter had done something racist rather than ableist, a large donation to an appropriate charity would be the FIRST thing that they would have done. But somehow that never happens when people with disabilities are the ones on the receiving end of the discriminatory behavior. Also, they need to fix their software, rehire a permanent accessibility team, and implement disability training for its entire staff. These steps will show genuine remorse while reducing the chances of something like this ever happening again. People think accessibility is hard. It isn’t. The Americans with Disabilities Act did not make stairs illegal. It requires that there be a ramp and an elevator to allow people to get to every point that people using the stairs can get to. As my bosses’ boss put it in his tweet, “there was no ramp here.” The ramp for this feature would have been so easy to create. Twitter had the tech. They just failed to care. What is hard is getting corporate employees to give a when: They are rewarded for getting software out, not getting ACCESSIBLE software out. They don’t have enough people with disabilities (or other underrepresented minorities) participating in the process who will catch this kind of stuff long before it is too late to fix. The Innovation Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Design Thinking, Sustainability & Creativity Follow 69 Sign up for The Innovation Digest By The Innovation Official newsletter of The Innovation Learn more Get this newsletter Emails will be sent to ejazwiecka@yahoo.com. Not you? Twitter Social Media Equality Accessibility Deaf
No, you are not entitled to pick my brain for freeAn 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
Post-COVID employment changes that will benefit everyone, but especially people with disabilitiesI’ve been accused of being a glass half-empty kind of person, but I have a good reason for how my personality was shaped. I spent 25 years of my life with a visible disability before the enactment of any law that guaranteed me equal access. Plus, I’ve undergone 24 surgeries and gone through a couple of “zebra” diagnosis. Sometimes it’s hard under those conditions not to wonder what is going to go wrong next. You frequently find yourself waiting for the next shoe to drop. I’m also allergic to toxic positivity, so I absolutely flat-out refuse to look for the good in every single negative situation. That being said, there is some good to be seen for some people with disabilities in the workplace resulting from the COVID chaos. However, it is essential to note that 20 % of workers with disabilities have lost their jobs as compared to 14 % of people without disabilities. Things that will definitely change (or have changed already) Several work-based behaviors have been immediately, and possibly permanently, impacted by COVID-19. WFH is here to stay No doubt about it — between social distancing requirements in physical workplaces when they re-open and the demonstrated reality that the work-world did not implode when mass WFH began almost three months ago. Requesting work from home no longer holds the stigma it once did. This change disproportionately benefits workers with disabilities who hold jobs that can be done from home. People with disabilities who can WFH can adjust their work schedules around what is best for their disability, be it doctor’s appointments, or frequent breaks. Few people prefer working in an office to working from home because of traffic, paying for transportation, wearing uncomfortable clothes, and the extra costs associated with all of those things plus the tendency to eat out more. The critical thing as WFH starts to become more permanent is to make sure that the employer or the worker’s team-mates do not treat people who choose to largely WFH as second class corporate citizens. Businesses that will succeed at WFH are ones where the business culture *intentionally* includes people working from home. As WFH spreads everywhere, it is necessary to consider thoughtful timezone scheduling for meetings. The pain needs to be shared. The world should not revolve around the timezone where the headquarters are located. Low/No touch objects in offices One thing that drives me nuts about the ADA is there are exactly *ZERO* regulations for standard internal doors. Outer doors? 5 lbs. of maximum pull weight. Interior doors can be as heavy as they want. When I traveled a lot at previous jobs, I continually ran into new doors that I couldn’t open without help. Outer doors? The requirement is no opening mechanisms that require grasping or turning. Interior doors can have all kinds of obnoxious and unusable handles that are effectively germ depositories. This lack of consideration for interior doors in the ADA makes me want to scream to regulators, “What, did my arthritis suddenly get cured when I came through the magical outer door?” The lack of ADA regulations for interior doors makes no sense to me at all. But it is what it is. COVID means that employers are going to need to take some responsibility for safety precautions in the workplace. Door handles and buttons ANYWHERE (elevators, printers, kitchen equipment) are workplace source #1 of transmission of all things infectious. Everyone touches them. A person with asymptomatic COVID (or a cold or flu) could touch a button or door handle, and the deposited virus can remain there between 1 and 3 days waiting to jump to its next host. Since there is no such thing as self-cleaning door handles or buttons (copper reduces, but doesn’t eliminate the risk) the next best thing is to change how workers interact with these objects to reduce the chance of transmission. Some of the changes to expect include: Doors that don’t require grasping or turning handles. Automatic doors are the gold standard, but expensive. They also require permits and backup power sources because of the necessary electricity in many cases, which increases the price and time to install considerably. Mechanical bars that you can bump into and push with a hand, hip, cane, or wheelchair are far easier to retrofit. Printers/Copiers that are software controlled and print automatically by scanning a badge Traffic signals that don’t require pushing buttons Telemedicine means fewer actual trips to the doctor’s office and thus less time away from work People with disabilities typically make more trips for medical care than people without pre-existing conditions. A trip to the doctor’s office for me usually eats a minimum of half a day — travel, find parking, waiting room time where hopefully there is Wi-fi, and you can get *something* done, actual appointment, followup with lab, pharmacy, x-ray, etc., travel back to the office/home. Shifting half of my non-invasive doctor’s appointments to telemedicine and email means I can save at least 30 hours a year — and that’s 30 hours less I am away from work. Pre-COVID, I had to push my physicians to do a video call, and those in small practices didn’t offer them at all. Now they are frequently offering video visits first, before asking if I want to come into the office. Office open floor plans are toast Frankly, this one is none too soon for me. Open floor plans are abjectly awful for people with a wide variety of disabilities and non-disabling work preferences. Lights, noise, difficulty finding people, smells, allergies, furniture getting moved into wheelchair clearance areas all make open floor plans a discriminatory experience for people with disabilities. There is nothing good to stay about open floor plans. It is difficult bordering on the impossible to remain socially distanced when working in an open floor plan layout. Standard projections for open floor plans are 25 % maximum occupancy when people are allowed to return to work. Expect a return to cubicles with high walls that can be disinfected (no cloth surfaces) or maybe even closed-door offices with air filters under some circumstances. People will be banned for coming into the office while ill Everyone has worked in an office where some influential leader has commented, “Look at Suzy’s commitment — she came in even though she was deathly ill.” Pre-COVID, coming in when sick was a sign of sacrifice. Leaders who praised this type of behavior set a very bad example that encouraged this behavior to be repeated by others. Every year in September, I send out a Slack message to my nearby co-workers, begging them not to come in if they have flu symptoms. I am not oblivious or arrogant enough to ask everyone to get a flu shot — that is a personal decision, and not 100 % effective regardless. However, since I have several autoimmune conditions, flu season is a serious concern of mine. Three years ago, I spent several days in infectious isolation in the hospital gravely ill when I picked up a flu strain (despite being vaccinated) likely from work-based business travel. My entire bone marrow production completely shut down. Someone made the decision that their need to travel was more important than my life. An employee’s need to get work done does NOT extend to harming a co-worker or someone close to them to accomplish that work. Expect in-office temperature taking combined with frequent symptom assessments and questionnaires about members of your family and their symptoms. Better Exercise/Yoga at Home Options Yes, people with disabilities exercise. Yoga, while seated, is actually a thing. But rather than having to travel and change clothes to participate, there is now a slew of service providers who have migrated their offerings online, and the employee can exercise and do yoga at home. Again this is a timesaver and will lead to happier and healthier employees, which is always a good thing. Things that might change Some issues will take longer to see if they will change as a result of COVID. Better arguments for paid sick time and Medicare for all Not everyone has paid sick time. Especially for hourly jobs, the lack of paid sick time frequently encourages people to come in even when they are ill because they are financially punished for staying at home. We saw this prior COVID with several food-borne illnesses that likely involved worker transmission at Chipotle, and cruise ships are notorious for this as well. A society committed to everyone’s good health requires paid sick time, similar to the SFPLO in San Francisco. One devastating element of COVID for people with disabilities is when the loss of a job is combined with the loss of insurance. For people in states that have expanded Medicare, they can frequently immediately qualify for subsidized health insurance through the Affordable Care Act healthcare exchange. People in this situation who live in states like Texas are in health care limbo, with zero insurance options until they find a job that provides coverage again. COVID has proved that the American connection between health insurance and employment terrible for everyone. Hopefully, this situation will be another reason that legislators will consider a “medicare for all”-type solution. More focus on mental health? One-third of Americans are showing signs of clinical depression under the current conditions. Anxiety is on a hockey stick slope up, and the US wasn’t prepared to deal with the levels of mental health issues we had before COVID made it that much worse. The stress caused by isolation is leading to higher rates of abuse and addiction relapses, overdoses, and deaths. Economic devastation is contributing as well — a study after the 2007 recession found that for every percentage point increase in the unemployment rate, there is a more than 1.5 % increase in the suicide rate. Despite the costs associated with all of the mental health issues triggered by COVID-19, very little of Federal Coronavirus funding has gone to mental health. Schools and workplaces are being forced to pick up the slack because you can’t learn or work at full capacity when you are having so many unresolved emotional difficulties. That is not sustainable in the long term, and if not addressed, will be costing families and societies money long after COVID is eradicated. 3 Covid 19 Disability Work Business Equality
People with disabilities will remember your words and actions when COVID-19 is overtwo cartoon heads with several gear wheels in the place of their brains looking at each other
Disability inclusive workplacesFour gender, ethnicity and ability cartoon people sitting at a table with plants on a yellow background
To Disclose, or not to DiscloseSmall fish that looks like sand camoflauged and hidden in the sand
A Happy Accessibility ArticleA woman at the desk, working on the computer and looking tired.
The True Cost of DisabilityFive dollar bill on wooden table partially viewed through a magnifying glass