I know automated web and document testing tools aren't going away. I recognize there is even a place for them. In the field, the lived experience of those of us who use assistive technologies has been all but ignored. We don't even have any real input into the Web Accessibility Guidelines (that are supposed to create accessibility). While they, sadly may be used to determine legal compliance, those guidelines don't mean something is useable or accessible to those of us who use assistive technologies.
I wish we would stop promoting solutions that minimize the value of user testing and help to deny people with disabilities some of the few jobs where our disability, would in a just world, give us a competitive advantage when seeking employment.
It would also be great if advocacy organizations would speak out against the lack of involvement we have in the development of WCAG. When guidelines are almost exclusively developed by corporations who have paid thousands of dollars to have the right to develop those guidelines, those guidelines are being developed at least as much to limit corporate liability as they are being developed to create content that is truly accessible to and usable by those of us who natively use assistive technologies.
By making the deliberate choice to all but deny our community participation in the development of WCAG the so-called Web Accessibility Initiative has chosen to exclude us in favor of its corporate masters.
Jonathan Simeone
npub1ta…phqkw
2026-06-12 17:56:33 UTC
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2026-06-12 17:56:33 UTCEvent JSON
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