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Discussion on: Why You Should Give a S*** About Accessibility

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mortoray profile image
edA‑qa mort‑ora‑y

I think it's important for mass market services to cater to people with disabilities. However, there's a real problem here: there is no standard I know of to detect user's disabilities. The best a site can do is offer a second version, which is basically a text only linear version and hope for the best.

Also, if a company is doing a lot of A/B testing, and UX testing, they will arrive at a site that caters mainly to people without disabilities. Some of your points can be implemented always (like alt-tags), but things like changing fonts or colors modify the intended design.

How are this divergent requirements to be met? Without a way to detect the user's requirements, sites will not be willing to compromise their design for all users.

Important side note: A lot of the web today just doesn't work for anybody. Sites are being rushed out without adequate testing. Even without disabilities there are sites that require a specific browser, or OS, screen resolution, etc. Some sites fail behind proxy servers, in VPNs, or with ad blocking. Or they're loaded with bad JS, and foreign JS that breaks them. Most web developers don't do enough testing.