Really, anything. I don't claim to be the spokesperson for all disabled people that need web accessibility, but I'm here to give you my own personal perspective.
Additionally, your questions don't even have to be about web development or a11y. If you have general questions about what it's like to be hard of hearing, please, ask away.
See you in the comments!
👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻
Did you know I have a newsletter? 📬
If you want to get notified when I publish new blog posts or make major project announcements, head over to https://ashleemboyer.com/newsletter.
Latest comments (55)
I'm an hard of hearing person, I've been in my shell for four years since hearing loss,now I got a laptop and i need guidance on digital skill to be working remotely
Thanks
Hi! I hope I’m not too late for the discussion, but this question popped up in my head and thought you would be the best person to ask.
I support accessible web — not because I need it but because it makes for a more inclusive space. And I know almost everyone can benefit from more accessible websites and environment — I tend to turn on subtitles on most videos I watch (mainly so I can watch them at 1.5x or 2x speed); and I also sometimes tab through websites because it’s practical (not that it’s always well implemented).
Now for the real question; how could one respond to people saying “we don’t need to limit our website for old people”?
It’s a tough question, I think, because I have a hard time answering without popping a forehead nerve. But I think many people honestly think that accessibility is only for elders or for a very limited group of people. When I mention the uses I give to accessibility tools, or cases of people I know, I’ve been told “yeah but nobody tabs through websites” and similar.
How does one respect peacefully and calmly? Maybe by mentioning statistics?
I imagine I'd also have a hard time answering this question if I wasn't disabled. However, since I am, if anyone ever asked me that ridiculous question, I have two possible answers:
Thanks a lot for the reply. I know what to tell the person who asked, the next time I talk to them :)
I hope my question wasn't offensive at all, and I apologize if it was
Not at all! In place of the first question, you could always say you have a young friend who needs accessibility options online. It’s not uncommon at all! Completely outside of the fact that people who’re born with disabilities are young for a very long time lol... anything can happen to any abled person at any time. Someone could fall down their porch steps and break both arms. They’re going to hope the internet is accessible if it ever happens.
On video or audio content do you prefer captions or full transcriptions? Or maybe both? Or is that overkill?
Hello,
I would like to learn about web development. But, I am not sure about the best resources. Would you like to suggest any?
I think 2015 was the first year I was exposed to web development. I used Codeacademy and really enjoyed it!
Oh, that "anything" tempts me to ask some really important stuff Ashlee!
1: Trap, rock, pop or classical?
2: Dance in the best place you can imagine or coding in google?
3: What can you say to a man who is gonna graduate from college in one month?
4: You think this whole life is kinda unfair?
Because you have difficulty hearing I would assume that video and audio would be the most difficult things. What is something that is challenging with the web that I wouldn't expect?
You probably wouldn't expect how many large companies don't manually put captions on their videos. A lot of places use auto-generated captions, but those are no good if the speakers in a video don't speak loudly or clearly enough.
Something I'd love to see if companies can't get on board with captions: transcripts. Just have someone type it up. I'm sure it's cheaper and faster than adding captions to a video if you don't have an expert doing it.
Hey,
I am interested in building a application like Adobe PDF and I wish to publish on the web. But, I have no idea building it. Would you mind helping me.
A little off-topic here, but I guess you can’t be off topic in an AMA? 😁 Can’t help you here, sorry friend! You might start by checking out some already existing apps and frameworks that help with displaying PDFs in the browser, for example.
Hi Ashlee! I am a second year CS student and I was wondering what advice would you give to a college student who does not exactly know if he wants to be Web Developer or not. I have interest in Web Development but I have interest in other fields as well. It really depends on my level of interest but wanted to hear from you on what made you decide you want to be a Web Developer.
Thanks for the AMA!
I didn’t know I wanted to be a web developer until I tried it out. My senior project was angular front-end and express back-end. That was my first real exposure, and I just fell in love with it.
So, my advice is to try anything that sparks your interest. My “ideal career” changed about 75 times because I kept discovering things I enjoyed doing.
On that note, when you find what you love, freaking embrace it. People are weird and judgy about all kinds of stuff, but don’t let what other people think of you dictate your life. They won’t be paying your bills. 😉
Awesome. Thank you so much :D
Okay so I recently did a post on accessibility, titled accessibility is a myth, I know what it sounds like but it's not what you think, check it out and let me know if you agree. Also thanks for posting that was very cool of you
Can you link it? I'll take a peek!
dev.to/adam_cyclones/accessibility...
Sorry that wasn't accessible of me 😁
I mostly agree with everything you said! Accessibility shouldn't be a huge deal. It should be the default. For now, it is a big deal. Celebrating people who do it right will help us "normalize" (for lack of a better term) making web sites and apps accessible.
I don't even agree with myself sometimes! but the point stands and you are 💯 correct on this, accessibility is a huge deal right now, perhaps some sort of failing has been recognised, or tooling is better and Canada is a desirable market, whatever it is, it's exciting.
What do you think it will take before web developers finally take #a11y seriously and start developing for accessibility by default en masse?
This is a tough one. If people can't get with a11y simply because it's the right thing to do, I don't know if they can be convinced. I think our best shot is to reshape how web development is taught. a11y can be done well if we do it from the beginning of the project, and that's what we need to do in education.
This is one area government regulation could help. It would be really hard to enforce though.
I definitely think we need more specific laws on web accessibility. Not sure how I feel about the govn't getting in education on it though.