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How does the accessibility story look like? If there's no accesibility, the usual disclaimers apply, get legal advice before building anything professional with

How does the accessibility story look like? If there's no accesibility, the usual disclaimers apply, get legal advice before building anything professional with it. Be aware of not just current laws, but future ones, especially those we definitely know are coming.

nlitened 6y ago
Honest question — do I really get into jail or get sued for high penalties if a small tools I make for my clients are not "accessible" by any measure?
- diegoperini 6y ago
  Probably yes if you "insist" on staying not accessible.
- eps 6y ago
  No, nobody would bother.
- gostsamo 6y ago
  Companies are obliged to provide necessary tools to their employees to perform the tasks that they are hired to perform. This includes accessible tools for people with disabilities as enforced in most legal systems. If your tool is not accessible, companies cannot meet this obligation and will choose a competitor who does.
- badsectoracula 6y ago
  No developer is going to be sued for their application having no accessibility features. The one who might be sued is an employer forcing some employee to use the software to perform their task without any other alternative, essentially making it impossible for that task to be performed by that employee. Unless you are in a position to cause this, you are not going to be affected (and even then, you getting sued is very unlikely unless you are said employer). In practice the worst that can happen to you is people with accessibility needs not using your software.
badsectoracula 6y ago
> If there's no accesibility, the usual disclaimers apply, get legal advice before building anything professional with it. I never heard about any "usual disclaimers", what exactly are you referring to? AFAIK nobody is going to be suing developers for their software and the worst that can happen is people with accessibility needs simply not using your programs. The main issue is with employees with accessibility needs being unable to perform their work due to your software and having no other alternative - this is a case where their employer (not you, unless you are said employer) can be sued. But beyond that i never heard anything about requiring legal advice before using any sort of UI framework for general professional use (TBH that sounds absurd).
mwcampbell 6y ago
Unfortunately, Ultralight has no accessibility support. I brought this up when Ultralight was initially announced a couple of years ago. So I hope that so far it is only being used by game developers. Also, while it's good that you bring up accessibility on threads like this one, I don't think it's a good idea to go straight for the threat of legal action. The natural response to that tactic is to question whether there will really be legal reprocussions, and that's a distraction from the real issue. Instead, I tend to focus on the moral problem of blocking people from doing their job, getting their education, etc.
adamjs 6y ago
I can enable accessiblity features and API to make the library more amenable to screen readers and other modes of browsing. So far the library has primarily been used in games (which have less accessibility concerns) so we've been focusing on that segment the last 6 months.

nlitened 6y ago

Honest question — do I really get into jail or get sued for high penalties if a small tools I make for my clients are not "accessible" by any measure?

diegoperini 6y ago
Probably yes if you "insist" on staying not accessible.
eps 6y ago
No, nobody would bother.
gostsamo 6y ago
Companies are obliged to provide necessary tools to their employees to perform the tasks that they are hired to perform. This includes accessible tools for people with disabilities as enforced in most legal systems. If your tool is not accessible, companies cannot meet this obligation and will choose a competitor who does.
badsectoracula 6y ago
No developer is going to be sued for their application having no accessibility features. The one who might be sued is an employer forcing some employee to use the software to perform their task without any other alternative, essentially making it impossible for that task to be performed by that employee. Unless you are in a position to cause this, you are not going to be affected (and even then, you getting sued is very unlikely unless you are said employer). In practice the worst that can happen to you is people with accessibility needs not using your software.

badsectoracula 6y ago

> If there's no accesibility, the usual disclaimers apply, get legal advice before building anything professional with it. I never heard about any "usual disclaimers", what exactly are you referring to? AFAIK nobody is going to be suing developers for their software and the worst that can happen is people with accessibility needs simply not using your programs. The main issue is with employees with accessibility needs being unable to perform their work due to your software and having no other alternative - this is a case where their employer (not you, unless you are said employer) can be sued. But beyond that i never heard anything about requiring legal advice before using any sort of UI framework for general professional use (TBH that sounds absurd).

mwcampbell 6y ago

Unfortunately, Ultralight has no accessibility support. I brought this up when Ultralight was initially announced a couple of years ago. So I hope that so far it is only being used by game developers. Also, while it's good that you bring up accessibility on threads like this one, I don't think it's a good idea to go straight for the threat of legal action. The natural response to that tactic is to question whether there will really be legal reprocussions, and that's a distraction from the real issue. Instead, I tend to focus on the moral problem of blocking people from doing their job, getting their education, etc.

adamjs 6y ago

I can enable accessiblity features and API to make the library more amenable to screen readers and other modes of browsing. So far the library has primarily been used in games (which have less accessibility concerns) so we've been focusing on that segment the last 6 months.