A**hole ‘accessibility’ company sues accessibility advocate (SBLTN Lab Notes 049)
Overlay company sues accessibility expert, implementing inclusive language in small ways, Africa-inspired animated short films
IN THE MARGINS
Here’s a gentle reminder to slow down in the ways that you can.
“Dear fellas, I can't believe how fast things move on the outside. I saw an automobile once when I was a kid, but now they're everywhere. The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry.” -Brooks from “The Shawshank Redemption”
ACCESSIBILITY
Overlay Company Steps Over Accessibility Expert
Website accessibility in one click? “Set it and forget it” compliance? Sounds great!... Hold up a second…
This silver-bullet dream is being packaged and sold as what’s called an “overlay”. You’ve likely seen them before on websites: the little floating button that then opens up a world of access via settings like color contrast, pausing animations, and even swapping in “dyslexia friendly” fonts.
“Oh my god, Laneen, you’re such a hater… What’s wrong with overlays?” Well, I’ll go on a full rant about accessibility widgets another day. For now, yes, it gets the conversation going about mass adoption of digital accessible practices and for small businesses, starting somewhere is better than not starting at all.
However, I think overlays suck because what’s under the hood and that the companies pushing them aren’t being transparent.
These overlays often:
Don't work properly or create a frustrating experience for people with disabilities
Fail to correctly address key problems (such as missing alternative text, keyboard navigation, ambiguous anchor text links, etc)
Act as a band-aid by skipping the root of the issue: code
Can cost businesses even more money to remediate (fix) their website
Create unnecessary redundancy for assistive technology users or even completely override existing assistive technologies
Not to mention it locks the customer into a subscription with the company in order to “remain compliant” with accessibility laws, when in fact using an accessibility overlay does NOT help avoid lawsuits and gives site owners a false sense of security.
Word is getting out that these so-called “one-size-fits-all solution” overlays may not be as magical as they claim so the companies that supply them are crying in a corner about their reputation.
Now the companies are taking their tantrums to the courts.
AudioEye, a multi-million dollar accessibility company that licenses an overlay, filed a lawsuit against Adrian Roselli, a long-time leader in the global digital accessibility community. Adrian has been a vocal critic of overlay claims so the company has sued Adrian to stop him from expressing his opinions about their product.
Lainey Feingold, a disability rights lawyer with twenty-five years experience in technology and information access issues for blind people, states:
“Instead of embracing Adrian Roselli’s expertise to better its product, Audio Eye, in my opinion, has strategically singled out a top leader in this space for his participation in this urgent conversation.” (Source)
On July 6, 2023, Adrian’s attorney filed a motion to dismiss under an anti-SLAPP law. SLAPP stands for “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.” It is a type of lawsuit that targets activists in a number of fields around the globe.
“The sound of the SLAPP abbreviation is appropriate. A SLAPP suit is a slap in the face of the person being sued for participating in a public issue. And it is a threatened slap in the face for everyone else participating publicly in that issue.” -Lainey Feingold (Source)
Lawsuits like this worry me for a few reasons…
It could set a dangerous legal precedent, infringes on free speech by silencing social justice advocates, and is a threat to public conversations about ethical digital accessibility. It also serves corporate interests over the right to accurate information for consumers. Most of the people that I’ve seen use these overlays are well-intentioned entrepreneurs, nonprofits, or small businesses. They believe what overlay companies advertise and so they act in what they think is the best interest of their customers with disabilities by purchasing the overlay.
In 2021, a French overlay company sued web accessibility champion Julie Moynat for the French version of defamation based on her participation in the global discourse about the harms of overlays. Seeing as these cases might be picking up steam, I’ll be keeping my eye on what’s happening 👀
DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
Implementing inclusive language in small ways
Terms like “the Great Awokening” and “Summer of Social Justice” get tossed around when there’s an increase in social justice advocacy and movements. With the nonstop onslaught of events regarding racism, homophobia, sexism, and all the other shitty -isms and phobias against people, I often wonder where the next wave of awareness and action will take us. This can make me feel overwhelmed so I zoom in to a more micro level. Just as important as what’s being done is what’s being said. Language is powerful. As humans explore their complexity, identities, and experiences, new terminology comes into play. I try to be conscious of the language I use so it’s cool when I see others implementing change to keep up with society’s exploring.
Setting the tone
At the bottom of the homepage of Grantmakers For Girls Of Color, I noticed their disclaimer:
*When G4GC refers to “girls of color” we include any cis, trans, gender-expansive, non-binary and/or any girl- or femme-identified person age 25 and younger who identifies as Black, Indigenous, Latina/e, Asian, Arab, Pacific Islander, and/or other People of Color.
This creates shared understanding among readers and also clearly states G4GC’s values of inclusion and supporting movements led by that specific group.
Diversity in design language
As a designer, I live in Adobe programs. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw a note about a change in their terminology:
“Equitable Language: We are replacing non-inclusive language from InDesign 2022 (version 17.0) onwards, to reflect core Adobe values of inclusivity. Any reference to Master page is replaced by Parent page in our Help articles for the English, Danish, Hungarian, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian, Portuguese, and Japanese locales.”
Granted I’m perhaps a bit too hype over crumbs. It’s certainly not 40 acres and a mule type reparations but considering how many Adobe users there are, this exposes a lot of people to something I hope they will spend a moment to think about. Quite a bit of our habitual language can do with a rebrand or refresh. I’m personally now working on phasing out using “crazy” to describe someone and still cringe at how younger me used “retarded” so casually. But hey, when you know better you can do better #WorkInProgress
ART & DESIGN
Africa-inspired animated short films
“Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire” on Disney+ is an action-packed animated sci-fi anthology that presents 10 futuristic visions from Africa inspired by the continent's diverse histories and cultures. These short films showcase Africa as you’ve never seen it before: stories made by a new generation of animation creators that draw on uniquely African perspectives to imagine brave new worlds of advanced technology, aliens, spirits, and monsters.
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Signing off from the Starship SBLTN,
Laneen (Pronouns: she/they)
📖 Reading: “The Richest Black Girl in America” article - When an 11-year-old Black girl in Jim Crow America discovers a seemingly worthless plot of land she has inherited is worth millions, everything in her life changes — and the walls begin to close in. The untold story brought to life from thousands of pages of archival documents.
👀 Watching: “Hidden No More: Classical Music by Artists of African Descent” - Brief introduction to an epic story of Classical Music by Black Composers and Musicians--a story of genius, racial injustice, and the start of a cultural awakening. Together, we can ensure that these maestros and masterpieces are Hidden No More. Learn more at the website “AfriClassical”.
✔️ Random Fact: Scotland named the unicorn, though never seen in person, the national animal. The Scots opted for this mythical creature over the Loch Ness Monster for the role the unicorn played throughout their history. 🦄