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Twitter’s Entire A11y Experience Team Let Go

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Re: Twitter’s Entire A11y Experience Team Let Go

#21

Post by nathanaldensr »

_djo_ wrote: post #8
koshergweilo wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is A11y a nice to have? Doesn't the ADA mandate a certain level of accessibility on companies of a certain size.

Not the ADA specifically, but American courts have generally held that large commercial websites do need to be accessible in terms of the ADA. That's aside from the cruelty of diminishing accessibility on a major social platform, slowly cutting off disabled users, despite its cost likely being a rounding error in the greater scheme of things.

The current website already supports accessibility. The team being fired or laid off doesn't mean that suddenly goes away.

Re: Twitter’s Entire A11y Experience Team Let Go

#22

Post by User23 »

_djo_ wrote: post #9
hulitu wrote: post #4

> Twitter’s Entire A11y Experience Team Let Go A8y "A11y" s4s f1r accesibility. (Apparently "A11y" stands for accesibility). "Twitter is better in the app" is not a sign of "accesibility". Sign in is not a sign of "accesibility".

None of those are accessibility issues, they're product design choices.

Accessibility is a product design choice. Accessibility isn't just for the disabled, it affects everyone.

Re: Twitter’s Entire A11y Experience Team Let Go

#24

Post by neltnerb »

_djo_ wrote: post #8
koshergweilo wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is A11y a nice to have? Doesn't the ADA mandate a certain level of accessibility on companies of a certain size.

Not the ADA specifically, but American courts have generally held that large commercial websites do need to be accessible in terms of the ADA. That's aside from the cruelty of diminishing accessibility on a major social platform, slowly cutting off disabled users, despite its cost likely being a rounding error in the greater scheme of things.

There was a court case in recent memory mandating that universities caption any video they publish. It was specifically relying on the ADA.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahkim/2019/11/29/harvard-uni...

"In the United States alone, approximately 50 million people are considered deaf or hard of hearing. The failure to provide appropriate accommodations to this community is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973."

Re: Twitter’s Entire A11y Experience Team Let Go

#25

Post by adam_arthur »

superb-owl wrote: post #23
jacooper wrote: post #5

I mean if I need to lower costs ASAP, nice to haves like A11y would be the first to get cut.

a11y is no more a "nice to have" than a wheelchair ramp. It's a legal and moral requirement. This is like saying security is "nice to have"

There are no moral requirements

Re: Twitter’s Entire A11y Experience Team Let Go

#26

Post by karmakaze »

CharlesW wrote: post #19
karmakaze wrote: post #16

Accessibility shouldn't be a separate team. It should be a consideration for all product development. And as far as experiences go, Twitter has a pretty small surface area.

> Accessibility shouldn't be a separate team. It should be a consideration for all product development. Teams generally don't have expertise in all areas, which is why cross-functional teams with deep experience in a specific area can be a great way to organize resources. This is why design teams, performance teams, security teams, etc. exist.

This may also have been the case with localization and translations. At a certain scale the problem is solved and tooling is put in place. Now on the project I work on, we have a process for creating translation templates that get populated for other languages. But it's everyone's responsibility for using the template mechanisms put in place.

The same arguments are valid for performance and security. They shouldn't be added after product development.

Re: Twitter’s Entire A11y Experience Team Let Go

#28

Post by _djo_ »

nathanaldensr wrote: post #21
_djo_ wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the ADA specifically, but American courts have generally held that large commercial websites do need to be accessible in terms of the ADA. That's aside from the cruelty of diminishing accessibility on a major social platform, slowly cutting off disabled users, despite its cost likely being a rounding error in the greater scheme of things.

The current website already supports accessibility. The team being fired or laid off doesn't mean that suddenly goes away.

That's why I said diminishing accessibility and slowly cutting off disabled users. This obviously isn't going to happen immediately, but every new feature will be less accessible and maybe even not provide accommodations entirely.

Re: Twitter’s Entire A11y Experience Team Let Go

#29

Post by [deleted] »

nathanaldensr wrote: post #21
_djo_ wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the ADA specifically, but American courts have generally held that large commercial websites do need to be accessible in terms of the ADA. That's aside from the cruelty of diminishing accessibility on a major social platform, slowly cutting off disabled users, despite its cost likely being a rounding error in the greater scheme of things.

The current website already supports accessibility. The team being fired or laid off doesn't mean that suddenly goes away.

[deleted]

Re: Twitter’s Entire A11y Experience Team Let Go

#30

Post by jimt1234 »

superb-owl wrote: post #23
jacooper wrote: post #5

I mean if I need to lower costs ASAP, nice to haves like A11y would be the first to get cut.

a11y is no more a "nice to have" than a wheelchair ramp. It's a legal and moral requirement. This is like saying security is "nice to have"

I've worked in security for years. If I had a dollar for every time I heard that (security is a nice-to-have), either directly or implied, I could retire. LOL
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