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by CrimsonRain 54 days ago
I think accessibility is a really admirable thing and helpful to society (like ramps or parking). But stop shoving your wants on others when you can fix it on your own. Just write a chrome plugin using ai that adjusts css to set contrast ratio of your choice. Can even use a local llm to figure out replacement colors.

Accessibility that can be had on client side should not be a concern on server side.

4 comments

>stop shoving your wants

“Don’t have bad vision if you didn’t want to be technical!”

(came across that way)

That's a really terrible option for the vast majority of people who simply lack that kind of tech savviness to be able to do it. And in my opinion, it's kind of selfish.

It also doesn't solve the issue if somebody is browsing your site on a mobile phone where the extension might not even work properly.

WCAG is not difficult - but it does require some modicum of effort.

Obligatory “have Claude write one for you” (in jest of course). All kidding aside, folks have always underestimated how much accessibility helps even those who don’t think they need it.
Right? "Build your own extension" to fix a website's accessibility problems is the equivalent of telling somebody who is disabled to stop complaining about the lack of ramps when they can just modify their wheelchair with a jetpack.
They might not need it

…right now, today. But they might consider “build a world for ‘old’ you”

Our only recourse is to "stop shoving our wants on others," and instead make our own shit sandwich to fix someone else's shit sandwich?
stop shoving your wants on others when you can fix it on your own. Just write a chrome plugin using ai that adjusts css to set contrast ratio of your choice. Can even use a local llm to figure out replacement colors.

Stop shoving your wants on others when you can fix it yourself.

Just get some concrete and some lumber, and build that wheelchair ramp.

You can even hire a contractor to follow you around town all day building them as needed.

You are just being an ...

By your logic, when med-science will provide ways to fix legs, instead of fixing people's legs, we should be building wheelchair ramp all over the world...

I clearly said accessibility is good but what can be fixed on/around the source, should not be burdened on the site. Wheelchair is a perfect example of that.

You don't provide a wheelchair per site per person.

Imagine Chrome having accessibility toggle that sets this text contrast to whatever you prefer with one click/pre-settings. Now suddenly every site is compliant to your need.

More of the design accessibility should be option in the browser instead of the sites. That helps everyone better.

as a comparison, i think the wheelchair itself is people making their own accessibility.

the wheelchair is not built into the site, and only requires a few hooks or the odd helping hand to work.

mapping back to software, and especially websites, your user agent is your user agent. it should render websites in the way you want to see them, regardless of what colours the designer chose.

an AI accessibility browser is more like a wheel chair than a ramp

right, so in this analogy i should be legally required to have wheelchair accessibility in my house?
Not unless you invite the public in on a regular basis. Websites are available to the public - especially if you're trying to promote them on HN
"legal" is distinct from "moral" which is distinct from "polite".