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kestrellFrankly, I've come to view Google's announcements that they are committed to accessibility with a certain level of cynicism. I don't even get that peeved about it anymore, but instead am more curious to come to some understanding of why Google developers and I seem to have such different definitions of the word "accessibility." The following link offers the explanation that it isn't a semantics issue, it's a design issue, and that issue has implications beyond just eh affect on people with disabilities.
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But when we take the stance that we know how to design the perfect product for everyone, and believe you me, I hear that a lot, then we're being fools.
You can attribute it to arrogance, or naivete, or whatever -- it doesn't matter in the end, because it's foolishness. There IS no perfect product for everyone.
And so we wind up with a browser that doesn't let you set the default font size. Talk about an affront to Accessibility. I mean, as I get older I'm actually going blind. For real. I've been nearsighted all my life, and once you hit 40 years old you stop being able to see things up close. So font selection becomes this life-or-death thing: it can lock you out of the product completely. But the Chrome team is flat-out arrogant here: they want to build a zero-configuration product, and they're quite brazen about it, and Fuck You if you're blind or deaf or whatever. Hit Ctrl-+ on every single page visit for the rest of your life.
It's not just them. It's everyone. The problem is that we're a Product Company through and through. We built a successful product with broad appeal --
our search, that is -- and that wild success has biased us.
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reposted at
http://siderea.livejournal.com/889195.html
block quote start
But when we take the stance that we know how to design the perfect product for everyone, and believe you me, I hear that a lot, then we're being fools.
You can attribute it to arrogance, or naivete, or whatever -- it doesn't matter in the end, because it's foolishness. There IS no perfect product for everyone.
And so we wind up with a browser that doesn't let you set the default font size. Talk about an affront to Accessibility. I mean, as I get older I'm actually going blind. For real. I've been nearsighted all my life, and once you hit 40 years old you stop being able to see things up close. So font selection becomes this life-or-death thing: it can lock you out of the product completely. But the Chrome team is flat-out arrogant here: they want to build a zero-configuration product, and they're quite brazen about it, and Fuck You if you're blind or deaf or whatever. Hit Ctrl-+ on every single page visit for the rest of your life.
It's not just them. It's everyone. The problem is that we're a Product Company through and through. We built a successful product with broad appeal --
our search, that is -- and that wild success has biased us.
block quote end
reposted at
http://siderea.livejournal.com/889195.html
