4 ms·

Or you as a developer could just avoid alienating disabled people, who likely represent a large proportion of your target audience - whether you realise it or n

Or you as a developer could just avoid alienating disabled people, who likely represent a large proportion of your target audience - whether you realise it or not?

csande17 4y ago
In my experience, the only people actually alienated by a failure to strictly comply with WCAG's assumptions about color contrast are the ones who run random websites through automated scanners and complain about the results. WCAG's rules allow some color combinations that are inaccessible (eg black text on a red background, which is not visible to people with protanopia) and disallow some color combinations that are fine. You really need to have actual humans with disabilities look at your website to find out if it works for them.
Test0129 4y ago
Or, I could be a developer burdened by developing, marketing, and promoting my product. Unable to afford the time nor the energy to dedicate a large portion of my already limited budget on such things. Fundamentally, you are correct. Practically, you are very wrong. If you've ever been in this situation, as I have, you simply do the best you can with the tools you have. Sometimes this means not doing anything at all. Is this correct? Probably not. However, no one is paying me to do it and if someone threatens to sue me over it I'll pull the code and release it under an anonymous pseudonym. At some point automated scanners that look for things like this and send mean emails about compliance, legal action, etc are just bullying not different from patent vultures. Heading down this path, while valiant, must be done carefully. Otherwise, Google/Apple/Microsoft/Amazon etc will be the only people with the budget to allow for full compliance to every possible disability that may effect the use of their product. I'm not convinced you understand just how much time and energy it takes out of actually delivering a product on a limited budget (in Nord's case free). Your use of "alienate" has venom behind it that makes me think you're implying they do this deliberately to spite people with disabilities. Occam's razor.
Teever 4y ago
That's like saying that we should ban spicy food and only serve plain gruel because some people are overwhelmed by spicy food.

Or you as a developer could just avoid alienating disabled people, who likely represent a large proportion of your target audience - whether you realise it or not?

csande17 4y ago

In my experience, the only people actually alienated by a failure to strictly comply with WCAG's assumptions about color contrast are the ones who run random websites through automated scanners and complain about the results. WCAG's rules allow some color combinations that are inaccessible (eg black text on a red background, which is not visible to people with protanopia) and disallow some color combinations that are fine. You really need to have actual humans with disabilities look at your website to find out if it works for them.

Test0129 4y ago

Or, I could be a developer burdened by developing, marketing, and promoting my product. Unable to afford the time nor the energy to dedicate a large portion of my already limited budget on such things. Fundamentally, you are correct. Practically, you are very wrong. If you've ever been in this situation, as I have, you simply do the best you can with the tools you have. Sometimes this means not doing anything at all. Is this correct? Probably not. However, no one is paying me to do it and if someone threatens to sue me over it I'll pull the code and release it under an anonymous pseudonym. At some point automated scanners that look for things like this and send mean emails about compliance, legal action, etc are just bullying not different from patent vultures. Heading down this path, while valiant, must be done carefully. Otherwise, Google/Apple/Microsoft/Amazon etc will be the only people with the budget to allow for full compliance to every possible disability that may effect the use of their product. I'm not convinced you understand just how much time and energy it takes out of actually delivering a product on a limited budget (in Nord's case free). Your use of "alienate" has venom behind it that makes me think you're implying they do this deliberately to spite people with disabilities. Occam's razor.

Teever 4y ago

That's like saying that we should ban spicy food and only serve plain gruel because some people are overwhelmed by spicy food.