Short Posts
I crosspost these shorter pieces to LinkedIn.
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RE: AMA Compliance Deadline
As of today, all #Manitoba businesses with at least one employee, that have a website update or have a new website made, are required to have that website meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 Level AA.
This is the Accessibility for Manitobans Act's Information and Communications Standard coming into force for the private sector. With requirements even more rigorous than those in Ontario, our little province is leading the charge in Canada.
May the law recognize #inaccessibility for what it is:
Discrimination.
#WCAG #Accessibility #DEI #Inclusion #Website
RE: RFK Jr's Autism Comments
RFK Jr. is spreading hateful rhetoric against Autistic people in the name of advancing his own anti-vax conspiracy.
If he gets his way, the well-being of Autistic children will not be the only concern we have.
No, all children will be in put in danger.
It is extremely concerning that doctors in #Manitoba are now raising the alarm, telling people to vaccinate their children. Measles rates in Manitoba are climbing and new cases were confirmed in Southern Manitoba just yesterday.
It is abundantly clear: just like all of the other maladies we have caught from our southern neighbours, Canada is not immune to anti-vax propaganda.
And despite all the progress of the last decade, we are apparently not yet immune to measles either.
This conversation is not just the business of people who have personal or familial links to #Autism.
This is everyone's business.
RE: WCAG, Global Guidelines?
‼️ Are the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (#WCAG) truly global? 🌏
Developed mostly by people of the Global North, the WCAG are frequently cited as a standard that is truly 'international' in scope. Versions of WCAG are written into law throughout the world. 🧑⚖️
But a 2025 study by Nourian et al. asked a critical question:
❓How easily can WCAG be applied by designers from the Global South?
Participants in India, Iran, Turkey, Nepal, and Indonesia reported back 🇮🇳🇮🇷🇹🇷🇳🇵🇮🇩
🚩 WCAG criteria regarding text spacing were inapplicable to certain writing systems, like Farsi.
🚩 Culturally popular styles, like white text on vibrant hues in Indonesia, didn’t meet contrast ratio requirements.
🚩 Critically, designers were forced to use English language resources as translations of the WCAG were not available in their languages. This led to confusion, misinterpretation, and anger.
Nourian et al. suggested developing regional versions of the WCAG standard to bridge these gaps. 🗂️
I personally think it would be better to go in the other direction and update WCAG's Understanding docs to be more culturally neutral, as well as make more translations. 📝
What do you think? 🤔
#Accessibility #InclusiveDesign #Internationalization #UX #WebAccessibility
RE: Maximizing Gains
Are your marketing tactics undercutting the potential gains of your accessibility program? 🫠
🧑🎓 In 2025, Spanish researchers Lopez-Gamero et al. confirmed what #accessibility advocates have long known:
#Disabled tourists are not the only people who benefit from accessible #hotels - all stakeholders, including other tourists, management and employees, experience a lift in quality of life. ✅
The researchers suggest that gains were maximized when accessibility was incorporated through the lens of #SocialInnovation. The mere presence of accessibility alone did not drive a significant economic competitive advantage.
➡️ But when accessibility is highly visible? 👁️
➡️ When accessible features are advertised? 📣
➡️ When management starts viewing people with disabilities as valued guests, instead of problem clients? 🤗
Research shows, it's a total game-changer. 📈
#Tourism #UniversalDesign #Hospitality #UX #DEI
RE: Ableism in the Field
Lots of people who work in disability-adjacent fields are #ableist. 🙄
In 2023, the Council on Quality and Leadership found that most #disability professionals were ableist. "When we examined the disability attitudes of disability professionals, we found high levels of both explicit and implicit attitudes, with most professionals scoring as symbolic ableists," the report's conclusion states. 😬
It's important that people who work in accessibility, whether that be in the field of digital accessibility, in direct support work, in sign language interpretation and DeafBlind intervenor work, recognize the power we wield over the lives of #Disabled people. 🫡
As professionals, we have authority. 💪
With this authority, we must seek out to be more accountable to the communities we serve, not less accountable because we're supposedly doing, 'the good work.'
Ableism this pervasive is a reflection of systemic failure, rather than individual failure. And even those of us who identify as Disabled professionals are not immune. 🫂
What are you doing to be more professionally accountable in the face of overwhelming systemic #ableism?
RE: WCAG, Not Necessarily Accessible
#WCAG doesn't force you to make a good product. If your product is absolutely garbage for everyone to use, it doesn't tell you that you need to change something so that people can use it.
Imagine you have an app. To register for the app, you first have to pass a skill-testing question, where you have to push a button over and over 3 million times in order for your account to be validated.
Well, if that button is keyboard accessible, has proper colour contrast, has an accessible name, has that accessible name somewhere in the label, is set up with appropriate status message, takes input on the up-event, and meets all of the other relevant WCAG checkpoints, we can say it meets WCAG conformance requirements and is baseline accessible!
If it's inaccessible to everyone, WCAG doesn't consider it to be a matter of #accessibility anymore.