[onion2k]

It's good that the author is questioning how to make accessible content in ways that make the experience of using a site better for everyone, but it's incredibly disappointing that they scattered the article with points saying (I'm paraphrasing) "I'm not visually impaired so I can't know what this is like!"

You can know. Just talk to people who use assistive tech. Don't guess at how to improve what you build. Hire a diverse team who know these problems because they encounter them. Hire consultants. Just reach out to your friends to find someone who'll spare an hour of their time in return for a coffee - I guarantee that they'll be amazed and so damn happy that you want to make your code work better for them.

Also, and this is critical for understanding why accessible software is worth building, you should also realise that making something accessible makes it better for everyone. Accessibility features like enabling keyboard navigation of an app improves the user experience for everyone who chooses to use that feature, not just for people who need that feature. I believe that if you think of adding accessible feature as "enabling powerusers" you stop finding excuses not to bother.

[ximm]

I can sympathize with the author. I try to learn about accessibility in my free time, so I cannot "hire a diverse team/consultants". I also don't want to annoy random people I meet with questions about their disabilities. So instead I read a lot. And when I write something, I am transparent about the fact that I do not have first hand experience (at least not to the point that I was unable to complete a task due to accessibility issues).

I agree this is far from ideal, but it is better than nothing.

[onion2k]

I also don't want to annoy random people I meet with questions about their disabilities.

You obviously need to be tactful about it, but if you're genuine and willing to listen to people about the problems they face and you're in a position to solve them, in even just a tiny way, they won't be annoyed. Totally the opposite in fact.

People assuming things like "they'll be annoyed to talk about the problems they face" is really another form of discrimination. It's so much better not to make assumptions about people and let them decide if they'll help you or not.

[ad404b8a372f2b9]

Everything is discrimination by these standards. Disability is a personal thing for a lot of people, it's perfectly reasonable to be hesitant to ask people about it.

In addition you can bet not many disabled people want to be a walking survey of the problems they face. To that effect, you can check any disability forums, which are littered by engineers wanting feedback on their products. Hell, just look at the top post of /r/blind written 6 days ago.

[Angostura]

I quite often run sites through screenreader software. It certainly helps find egregious problems.

[elisehein]

Thanks for raising! I guess I feel it's a necessary disclaimer out of respect to people who do have the first-hand experience. But I can see how it can come off as an excuse for not getting it right, and it certainly shouldn't be.

FWIW, I did talk to a screen reader user for this article (the accessibility consultant I mention – he is the chair of a local blind union), but indeed I don't know anybody personally and he could have easily brushed me off as random cold emailer, so I'm grateful for his comments.

[bobthepanda]

Also, a big step is just bothering to turn on and use the assistive technologies that come out of the box, or you can do without much difficulty.

Mac comes out of the box with VoiceOver (I think iOS does too.) A lot of software either has directly or as an extension colorblindness filters.

[eternityforest]

Some of those features also can be helpful when hardware starts failing. If a display breaks on a laptop, you can possibly use some screen reader features to save your work. And obviously, things that help the hearing impaired also help those who don't have working speakers at the moment.