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Selfish reason for not building accessible UIs: it's extra work that doesn't justify the cost compared to the market share. We would all be better off spending

by snarfy 1y ago

Selfish reason for not building accessible UIs: it's extra work that doesn't justify the cost compared to the market share. We would all be better off spending that investment on improving the dozen or so screen readers instead of billions of web sites. We aren't far from an LLM powered screen reader making aria tags moot.

bevr1337 1y ago
It takes the same amount of work to use an <aside> or <button> as a <div>. I have never accepted the argument that accessibility is more work. It is the same amount of work but done correctly. Aria attributes are only necessary when extending HTML semantics.
- zamadatix 1y ago
  In the best (and thankfully pretty common) cases the work to do the accessible answer can be the same, or even less, than the work to do it otherwise. That certainly doesn't extend to all cases though and that's where it can snag. E.g. making complex charts or visualizations accessible to those using screen readers often involves creating a second version of the information only suited for that modality. A ton of other things are a bit in-between, such as prefers-reduced-motion being somewhere between "pretty easy" to "complex" depending on how you implement it in your site but, either case, adding some amount of effort.
  - bevr1337 1y ago
    Complex cases are indeed complex! Data viz is an interesting example since visuals are often misleading and time sinks regardless of ability. It's less effort to provide an HTML table or CSV export than gluing D3 and React together (or whatever stack your team uses). I try my hardest to push back on canvas viz so we're not reinventing every wheel. SVG is easy to extend and make interactive
sirwitti 1y ago
Just as we aren't far from actually usable and safe self driving cars since 10+ years. This is not a valid argument.
shakna 1y ago
Thanks for telling me I deserve to eat glue with my pizza, for being born. Who do you build for, so I can blacklist them?
- snarfy 1y ago
  It's not what I do. I was making an argument. I do build accessible UIs. It's a requirement. My PRs wouldn't pass automation if they weren't.

by snarfy 1y ago

bevr1337 1y ago

It takes the same amount of work to use an <aside> or <button> as a <div>. I have never accepted the argument that accessibility is more work. It is the same amount of work but done correctly. Aria attributes are only necessary when extending HTML semantics.

zamadatix 1y ago
In the best (and thankfully pretty common) cases the work to do the accessible answer can be the same, or even less, than the work to do it otherwise. That certainly doesn't extend to all cases though and that's where it can snag. E.g. making complex charts or visualizations accessible to those using screen readers often involves creating a second version of the information only suited for that modality. A ton of other things are a bit in-between, such as prefers-reduced-motion being somewhere between "pretty easy" to "complex" depending on how you implement it in your site but, either case, adding some amount of effort.
- bevr1337 1y ago
  Complex cases are indeed complex! Data viz is an interesting example since visuals are often misleading and time sinks regardless of ability. It's less effort to provide an HTML table or CSV export than gluing D3 and React together (or whatever stack your team uses). I try my hardest to push back on canvas viz so we're not reinventing every wheel. SVG is easy to extend and make interactive

sirwitti 1y ago

Just as we aren't far from actually usable and safe self driving cars since 10+ years. This is not a valid argument.

shakna 1y ago

Thanks for telling me I deserve to eat glue with my pizza, for being born. Who do you build for, so I can blacklist them?

snarfy 1y ago
It's not what I do. I was making an argument. I do build accessible UIs. It's a requirement. My PRs wouldn't pass automation if they weren't.