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Being blind is not the issue. Existing in a society that never really has embraced the fact that some members are incapacitated and would need better support i

by lynx23 3y ago

Being blind is not the issue. Existing in a society that never really has embraced the fact that some members are incapacitated and would need better support is. I am 43 now, and blind since almost 40 years. And even if you are not going to believe me: blindness is definitely not the issue. When I feel down, it is always because society does not want to accomodate for people with disabilities. And I say want because of the digital divide, and the unwillingness to change things for better accessibility. About 20 years ago, web accessibility felt like "Yes, lets do it!", these days, I read a lot of negative comments on HN which basically boil down to "We already have a small revenue margin, we cant be bothered to basically work for free for these subhumans". I am exaggregating of course, but to tell you the truth, it is just how it feels to someone dependant on society wanting to be inclusive. And I am not talking about individuals. Many individuals will tell you they support better accessibility. But once you go higher up, you realize that is really just an individual thing. Society as a whole does not want to be bothered with having to accomodate for its disabled members. In the past, it was easier to "fix" this: people with disabilities were put in institutions where almost nobody could see them. These days, with all that pesky independence, it is becoming harder to look away. But still, a solution is not in sighted. In fact, the situation is slowly worsening. Many 40+ blind people I know had to actually quit their job early, because shiny new interfaces were quicker then any accessibility could be. And suddenly, you wake up in the morning and realize that you are totally useless at work from now on. A very nice feeling. I know people who fell into depression. Imagine, you've worked for 20 years, and suddenly, you are useless because "innovation".

jeroenhd 3y ago
It's pretty silly in how society deals with different minorities. When it comes to race, gender, or sexual orientation, there's often a massive focus on being inclusive. When it comes to accessibility, the argument changes to "explain why we should spend money on x% of people". Imagine the outrage, among progressives at least, if someone were to install automatic security doors that only work on white people. It mostly affects black people anyway and there aren't that many black people working for the company or being their customer, and changing the system would be expensive. I'm pretty sure you'd be under heavy fire from all kinds of different groups within society, and rightfully so. Propose the same thing but talk about the (legally) blind, and suddenly the "waste of money" argument gets a lot fewer criticism. The law states that a certain minimal amount of accessibility is required, but even that is often implemented lacklusterly (useless wheelchair ramps, trees in the middle of tactile pavement). I'm not so sure those shiny new interfaces are faster than accessibility can be, if people put in the effort. The spatial awareness and way of thinking many blind people are forced to develop is extremely underutilized. Yes, the blind are limited because they can't see, but that also means they're not restricted by the limits of displays. An immense amount of oxygen and nutrients is spent on the virtual cortex that becomes available for other purposes when you can't see (anymore); that brain power doesn't just go away, it enhances other sensory processing but also alters the way memory and the motor cortex operate. Call me naive, but I believe with the right tools and the right approach, blind people can have an advantage in many jobs. The same may also be true of deaf people, whose brains are forced to develop systems for recognising visual cues for their lack of hearing, though they'll be able to work most office jobs and navigate places on their own already. It's so sad to see such unused potential go to waste and cause despair among the disabled. In a world where it's cheaper to take away incompliant tools than to make them accessible, I'm pessimistic for what the future will bring (i.e. the whole saga about that college that published years of recorded lectures without subtitles, and took them down for everyone when someone noticed they weren't compliant with accessibility requirements). Hopefully future legislation will force companies to make their products more accessible (in a way that taking down existing services/content is not an acceptable alternative) and hopefully some company will be able to unlock the potential of a human brain unrestricted by the requirement of visual cues, but I fear it's going to take a long time for that to happen.
- Pannoniae 3y ago
  Your writeup is amazing. I also want to mention that.... not just accessibility but general usability has also tanked recently, so even people without disabilities suffer. I have no idea how we got to this point but I feel like we are steadily devolving our interfaces and our technology to worse, dumber and harder-to-use variants. It's simply astonishing how with all this computing power, we are just wasting it but aren't improving things meaningfully.
- lynx23 3y ago
  This is by far the most interesting analysis of this topic that I have read since a long time. Given your writing, I am assuming you know a bit or two about the issues, but you seem to not be directly affected too much. This would be great, as "external" people often do a lot of guesswork (instead of thinking) and end up in weird corners, albeit still having good intentions. What I want to say with that is that it is not very often that I hear people analyse the situation so on the point, without falling for pity or patronisation or other "traps". The first thing you mentioned is especially pressing. It turns out the vocal minorities indeed get what they want after a while, but what they forget is that there is only so much space for inclusive work, and if you overstate your case, you end up taking away the freedoms of other minority groups. While I understand the dynamics, and I really try to stay fair, this has led me to no longer care about sexual minority and gender problems. To me, they have way more comfort in our society then my group, and while I also want only the best for them, I am no longer capable to pbulicly support their cause because I am damaging my own by doing so. And, dont get me wrong, I am fully aware how harsh that might sound, and probably is. But I cant help myself.
  - jeroenhd 3y ago
    I know absolutely nothing of the topic other than a few ARIA labels I applied a while back. I have a friend who is hard of hearing but that's about all the third hand experience I can recount. The most accessibility I need is a web page that renders text without Javascript. I do see a lot of companies and people in general lament accessibility, though, almost always because accessibility isn't valued and that irks me. It must be very disheartening to be part of a minority that doesn't get the same pity and care that other do. I wouldn't call the life of sexual minorities simple, with backwards countries still putting extreme sentences on anyone outside the norm and western countries (like the USA) creeping back to encoding be-straight-or-get-out policies, but I do see a disproportionate amount of pity. It's cheap and easy to change your company's flag to a rainbow a month every year. If you're creating media, just take a man out of a show and put in a woman, or make a little side note that they're trans, and boom, you're a forward thinking lightbearer here to teach us all about acceptance. When the going gets real tough, throw some money at a tax-deductible charity. With things like racism, it takes effort not to be race-inclusive. Meanwhile, people struggling to survive or hold down jobs are seen as a burden because people need to put in real work to make the world compatible with them. Some places even put blind, deaf, and behaviorally challenged kids in the same "special school". It's all so extremely unfair! I can't imagine being in your position, and all the best I can tell you is that other minorities started from terrible positions as well, so don't blame them for the way you're treated. We need more progress, not infighting between the people that are mistreated! However, there is reason to keep up hope; you never know what inclusion will be the next hype. I've seen an uptick with shows including deaf characters and sign language in Netflix shows, for example, which brings me hope that decent representation of disabilities will be next in popular media, which often pairs with progress within society.
AlgorithmicTime 3y ago
[dead]

by lynx23 3y ago

jeroenhd 3y ago

It's pretty silly in how society deals with different minorities. When it comes to race, gender, or sexual orientation, there's often a massive focus on being inclusive. When it comes to accessibility, the argument changes to "explain why we should spend money on x% of people". Imagine the outrage, among progressives at least, if someone were to install automatic security doors that only work on white people. It mostly affects black people anyway and there aren't that many black people working for the company or being their customer, and changing the system would be expensive. I'm pretty sure you'd be under heavy fire from all kinds of different groups within society, and rightfully so. Propose the same thing but talk about the (legally) blind, and suddenly the "waste of money" argument gets a lot fewer criticism. The law states that a certain minimal amount of accessibility is required, but even that is often implemented lacklusterly (useless wheelchair ramps, trees in the middle of tactile pavement). I'm not so sure those shiny new interfaces are faster than accessibility can be, if people put in the effort. The spatial awareness and way of thinking many blind people are forced to develop is extremely underutilized. Yes, the blind are limited because they can't see, but that also means they're not restricted by the limits of displays. An immense amount of oxygen and nutrients is spent on the virtual cortex that becomes available for other purposes when you can't see (anymore); that brain power doesn't just go away, it enhances other sensory processing but also alters the way memory and the motor cortex operate. Call me naive, but I believe with the right tools and the right approach, blind people can have an advantage in many jobs. The same may also be true of deaf people, whose brains are forced to develop systems for recognising visual cues for their lack of hearing, though they'll be able to work most office jobs and navigate places on their own already. It's so sad to see such unused potential go to waste and cause despair among the disabled. In a world where it's cheaper to take away incompliant tools than to make them accessible, I'm pessimistic for what the future will bring (i.e. the whole saga about that college that published years of recorded lectures without subtitles, and took them down for everyone when someone noticed they weren't compliant with accessibility requirements). Hopefully future legislation will force companies to make their products more accessible (in a way that taking down existing services/content is not an acceptable alternative) and hopefully some company will be able to unlock the potential of a human brain unrestricted by the requirement of visual cues, but I fear it's going to take a long time for that to happen.

Pannoniae 3y ago
Your writeup is amazing. I also want to mention that.... not just accessibility but general usability has also tanked recently, so even people without disabilities suffer. I have no idea how we got to this point but I feel like we are steadily devolving our interfaces and our technology to worse, dumber and harder-to-use variants. It's simply astonishing how with all this computing power, we are just wasting it but aren't improving things meaningfully.
lynx23 3y ago
This is by far the most interesting analysis of this topic that I have read since a long time. Given your writing, I am assuming you know a bit or two about the issues, but you seem to not be directly affected too much. This would be great, as "external" people often do a lot of guesswork (instead of thinking) and end up in weird corners, albeit still having good intentions. What I want to say with that is that it is not very often that I hear people analyse the situation so on the point, without falling for pity or patronisation or other "traps". The first thing you mentioned is especially pressing. It turns out the vocal minorities indeed get what they want after a while, but what they forget is that there is only so much space for inclusive work, and if you overstate your case, you end up taking away the freedoms of other minority groups. While I understand the dynamics, and I really try to stay fair, this has led me to no longer care about sexual minority and gender problems. To me, they have way more comfort in our society then my group, and while I also want only the best for them, I am no longer capable to pbulicly support their cause because I am damaging my own by doing so. And, dont get me wrong, I am fully aware how harsh that might sound, and probably is. But I cant help myself.
- jeroenhd 3y ago
  I know absolutely nothing of the topic other than a few ARIA labels I applied a while back. I have a friend who is hard of hearing but that's about all the third hand experience I can recount. The most accessibility I need is a web page that renders text without Javascript. I do see a lot of companies and people in general lament accessibility, though, almost always because accessibility isn't valued and that irks me. It must be very disheartening to be part of a minority that doesn't get the same pity and care that other do. I wouldn't call the life of sexual minorities simple, with backwards countries still putting extreme sentences on anyone outside the norm and western countries (like the USA) creeping back to encoding be-straight-or-get-out policies, but I do see a disproportionate amount of pity. It's cheap and easy to change your company's flag to a rainbow a month every year. If you're creating media, just take a man out of a show and put in a woman, or make a little side note that they're trans, and boom, you're a forward thinking lightbearer here to teach us all about acceptance. When the going gets real tough, throw some money at a tax-deductible charity. With things like racism, it takes effort not to be race-inclusive. Meanwhile, people struggling to survive or hold down jobs are seen as a burden because people need to put in real work to make the world compatible with them. Some places even put blind, deaf, and behaviorally challenged kids in the same "special school". It's all so extremely unfair! I can't imagine being in your position, and all the best I can tell you is that other minorities started from terrible positions as well, so don't blame them for the way you're treated. We need more progress, not infighting between the people that are mistreated! However, there is reason to keep up hope; you never know what inclusion will be the next hype. I've seen an uptick with shows including deaf characters and sign language in Netflix shows, for example, which brings me hope that decent representation of disabilities will be next in popular media, which often pairs with progress within society.

AlgorithmicTime 3y ago

[dead]