The past week or two, there have been stories reporting that most vaccine information isn't accessible. A few months ago, people were talking about voting and candidate information not being accessible. A few months before that, it was news to some that most online grocery shopping sites weren't accessible. It's time to call it what it is: most [things] aren't accessible. Fill in the blank. The status quo isn't accessible, but the future can be.
Ironically, one of the most discouraging points about accessibility is also the most encouraging: it isn't that hard. You may read that and question why, then, is the majority of the digital world disproportionately unusable for people with disabilities. Sometimes the answer is that companies aren't familiar with accessibility yet — although proven to not be a valid legal defense, it's true. Others may think their website is accessible — maybe based on the word of a third-party or by believing in shortcuts like automated-only testing or overlays — and it isn't. There are other reasons, of course. These are also a few of the same reasons businesses don't make their websites accessible until they're sued.
That said, while right now most fill-in-the-blanks aren't accessible, there's no reason they can't be.
There are probably three possible reactions that most people will have when they come across the next "fill-in-the-blank isn't accessible" article:
- Wait, what's accessibility? People with disabilities use computers?
- Wow, that's terrible.
- Yeah, no kidding. What else is new?
Here's one incredibly easy way to become an influence that makes way for the long-awaited article pointing out that most [somethings] are accessible: remember that whatever reaction above most-closely matches yours, other people are having the other reactions.
With our day-to-day lives, we forget at times that the way we see things, the news we consume, the things that are so obvious to us are completely foreign to someone else who might read or talk about different stories and see the world differently. So really, being mindful of that the next time you come across one of these articles might prompt you to educate someone else on the current state of inaccessibility and what can be done about it. Or, it might prompt you to educate yourself.
There's room to make more positive change at every level, so while right now most fill-in-the-blanks aren't accessible, there's no reason they can't be.
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