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The "Disability Dongle": Why Silicon Valley Hates Me and You

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201–210 of 217 posts

Re: The "Disability Dongle": Why Silicon Valley Hates Me and You

#201

Specifically about accessible websites: I’m a web developer. At the request of a designer I work with, I spent a couple hours making a Claude skill that would run through WCAG AA and AAA, check contrast, screen reader experience etc. Since then, we’ve caught many little issues and a few big ones like adding a parallel screen reading element for a visually-oriented search tool. Building and testing the skill gave me b…

Could you share your skill? I've been working on a web app that I've been wanting to do a much more comprehensive accessibility audit on.

Re: The "Disability Dongle": Why Silicon Valley Hates Me and You

#203

Specifically about accessible websites: I’m a web developer. At the request of a designer I work with, I spent a couple hours making a Claude skill that would run through WCAG AA and AAA, check contrast, screen reader experience etc. Since then, we’ve caught many little issues and a few big ones like adding a parallel screen reading element for a visually-oriented search tool. Building and testing the skill gave me b…

Could you share your skill? I've been working on a web app that I've been wanting to do a much more comprehensive accessibility audit on.

Sure thing! https://github.com/michaeldhopkins/a11y-review

Re: The "Disability Dongle": Why Silicon Valley Hates Me and You

#204
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's both "the entire nation's infrastructure." and not that. What I mean is... many cases are individual: the ramp for that library; the door knobs/handles in that office; the floor indicators in this lift/elevator; the audio announcements (or lack of) on the busses/trains; the small print on contracts; live subtitling at the theatre; the checkout button on this web site; the checkout button on that website. You get…

> the Social Model of disability The best way I’ve heard this articulated is: Under the medical model, disabled individuals are expected to change their behavior to accommodate (fit on with) society. We ask people whose lives are already more difficult than average to do additional work. Under the social model, we ask all able-bodied people to accommodate disabled individuals instead. Further, the social model says t…

Those both skirt around the correct way to think about it, which is the costs way.there are extra costs associated with having a disability. the two models you propose are the disabled person pays or everyone else pays. Everyone else pays is not the correct model because it coerces people into mazsive costs that dont necessarily make sense for them. Disabled person pays isnt correct either because there are many near zero cost things we could do if we just thought about it at design phase. There should be ahealthier middle ground that routinely gets the cheap stuff done and leaves an easy path for the expensive stuff without coercing spending

Re: The "Disability Dongle": Why Silicon Valley Hates Me and You

#205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He’s been mayor of New York for, what, 8 months? > Give that guy a chance to properly fuck things up before you pass judgment. I really, really , urge you to try seeing the hypocrisy between this statement and your previous comment.

[flagged]

[deleted]

Re: The "Disability Dongle": Why Silicon Valley Hates Me and You

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He’s been mayor of New York for, what, 8 months? > Give that guy a chance to properly fuck things up before you pass judgment. I really, really , urge you to try seeing the hypocrisy between this statement and your previous comment.

[flagged]

> He’s already doxed 900,000+ people who own at least one non-primary residence.

> Tell me a good faith argument why he would do that?

I don't have a good argument for it, but I also don't really care that it happened? Only a few decades ago we had phone books with every person's name and number in them. Housing information is already generally public data. It's an overblown issue that news sources that have been against Mamdani even before he became mayor have latched onto as a scare tactic for their audience base. Relative to things going on in politics right now I'd call it nothing-burger. Relative to my ideals I'd call it a minor miss-step.

> Explain how discount grocery stores operated at tax payers expense is a net good.

Keeping people feed is a top 3 priority in any society. Without hard numbers, I can't really say anything more than that?

Basically... if this is Socialist politicians destroying the country, then capitalist politicians already put the country in the grave. And I don't live in NYC, so I care a lot more about the national stage.

Edit: Wait. I noticed in your comments that you're from Austrialia. Why are you even worried about Mamdani?

Re: The "Disability Dongle": Why Silicon Valley Hates Me and You

#207
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like the implication here is “if we can’t do anything, we shouldn’t do anything at all” under the social model. Not every doorknob will be disability friendly. If pressure from the social model fixes 20% of doorknobs, now there is a group of people can open 20% of doors where they could open 0% before.

My intended implication is that pressure from the social model has achieved as much as it can, and the left over problems must be resolved through other means. The vast majority of doorknobs I personally interact with, including 100% of the ones at my house and workplace, are lever-style.

As a disabled person, my experience indicates that we’re not even close to what the social model could achieve.

Example:

I have a chronic pain disorder. I have substantial difficulty working in an office. WFH was an absolute blessing, and RTO has been a curse.

RTO is a regressive policy for disabled people who found they were finally able to participate in their industry for the first time in ages. Now they are expected to take on extra burden to function in an able-bodied world. Many, whose bodies do not allow that option simply have to go back on SSDI.

That is an example of progress in the social model that has regressed back to the medical model.

Re: The "Disability Dongle": Why Silicon Valley Hates Me and You

#208
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the Social Model of disability The best way I’ve heard this articulated is: Under the medical model, disabled individuals are expected to change their behavior to accommodate (fit on with) society. We ask people whose lives are already more difficult than average to do additional work. Under the social model, we ask all able-bodied people to accommodate disabled individuals instead. Further, the social model says t…

> I’m disabled and became disabled as an adult and, in my experience, after becoming disabled I’ve faced rampant discrimination that wasn’t there before. I’ve been fired twice in the last 10 years due to disability-related issues. I have no recourse, anything I could do would risk torpedoing my career. This is life under the medical model. You’re expected to live a smaller existence. For what it is worth, I'm probabl…

I am so thankful that I just deal with chronic pain and not mobility issues as well. I’m sorry.

Even though it doesn’t affect me directly I’ve started to notice places where mobility accommodation sucks. In a sense it’s a canary: mobility is the most visible category disability to able-bodied folks and if our society can’t be bothered to help folks like you, god help us who have “invisible” illnesses.

Re: The "Disability Dongle": Why Silicon Valley Hates Me and You

#209
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the Social Model of disability The best way I’ve heard this articulated is: Under the medical model, disabled individuals are expected to change their behavior to accommodate (fit on with) society. We ask people whose lives are already more difficult than average to do additional work. Under the social model, we ask all able-bodied people to accommodate disabled individuals instead. Further, the social model says t…

Those both skirt around the correct way to think about it, which is the costs way.there are extra costs associated with having a disability. the two models you propose are the disabled person pays or everyone else pays. Everyone else pays is not the correct model because it coerces people into mazsive costs that dont necessarily make sense for them. Disabled person pays isnt correct either because there are many near…

> Disabled person pays isnt correct either because there are many near zero cost things we could do if we just thought about it at design phase.

??? This is the social model on a nutshell.

Re: The "Disability Dongle": Why Silicon Valley Hates Me and You

#210
post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those both skirt around the correct way to think about it, which is the costs way.there are extra costs associated with having a disability. the two models you propose are the disabled person pays or everyone else pays. Everyone else pays is not the correct model because it coerces people into mazsive costs that dont necessarily make sense for them. Disabled person pays isnt correct either because there are many near…

> Disabled person pays isnt correct either because there are many near zero cost things we could do if we just thought about it at design phase. ??? This is the social model on a nutshell.

No it isn't because it isn't cast in cost/opportunity cost/etc. The reality of implementation is top down dictation without apparent consideration of cost (For example, I redid the front door of our office and I now have two buttons to open the automatic door that look like crap and are at waist height and at the floor. This was dictated in the code in my region as a new concession that I never would have done because it is broadly stupid in my context.) Maybe highly cost sensitive and more optional social model would be a better description.
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