[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.