Thank you AccessiBe
In recent months one company has done more for my conversations on accessibility than any other, that company is one who have deluged social media and aggressively marketed their product to people as THE solution for accessibility.
That company has driven a reductive narrative, yet it is precisely because of this simplistic narrative that I have been afforded the opportunity to have a proper conversation with people I never normally would.
Snake Oil For The People
Accessibility “toolbars” or “overlays” present that accessibility — a human problem, created through the dismissal of the needs and importance of those with disabilities, and who’s prevalence is high due to cost cutting and de-prioritisation — should be fixed via the means of a cheap solution that suggests a single line of code fixes all and de-prioritises the human issue.
Their aggressive marketing and underhand sales tactics have led to people who wouldn’t have entered the conversation finally doing so.
In promising a cheap solution they’ve allowed the decision makers and purse string holders to ask specialists if “fixing” accessibility is really that easy, and if it’s something they should prioritise.
Of course as anyone who understands accessibility knows fixing a human problem with a single of line of code is as sensible as fixing noisy brakes on a bike by adding oil.
Sure the noise will have stopped for now, but that wall is coming at you faster than you thought and when you finally realise you’re going to hit it your brakes no longer work.
The Fallacy of Automation
You see even the best automated tools (fully automated, and not guided) spot 40% of accessibility issues (according to gov.uk reports on the efficacy of automated accessibility tooling) and these are the things you can check at a code level.
Automated accessibility testing can help a human to recognise where issues exist in code, they form a hugely useful part of my own workflow, in fact when carrying out audits and assessments I rely in part on tools like IBM’s equal access toolkit.
The tools it provides are integral to highlighting early stage issues, they allow me to run reports that begin my journey of discovery into where problems lie, but it is at that point the human takes over.
Something automation and AI can never do is tell you if you can follow a user journey successfully, or if content is clear, concise and written in a way a person — like myself — with dyslexia can understand.
They cannot tell you if the valid use of ARIA provides a human understandable output, nor if the heading structure allows for contextual navigation.
They cannot discern if colour is the only means of distinguishing purpose, or if icons are the only thing that gives affordance.
They cannot tell you if your carousel moves to fast for those with motor issues to interact with, or if your imagery is tokenistic, or worse ableist.
Automation does not engage with those who experience everyday barriers to use, all automation does is traverse a set of rules that can be programmatically defined.
Given the nuance and importance of the human in human interactions, and given the complexity of the web, it’s clear to us all why toolbars and overlays cannot succeed in their promises.
Others have written more intelligently than me on the fact these “solutions” can even leave you open to lawsuits or damage your product’s reputation and i’d advise you read these links if you read nothing else on the subject:
What’s Wrong With Quick-Fix Products For Digital Accessibility?
A Final Thank You
So thank you AccessiBe, and all other accessibility cheap “fixes”, you have gained the community more attention than you realise and proven to the world that accessibility can never be fixed with a single line of code.
You have galvanised the community and gained us column inches in publications from Vice to Forbes, places that wouldn’t naturally cover our craft.
And for those of you who are having your first stage conversations with companies like these who make empty promises and dismiss people with years of experience, who spend their own personal time on making the web a better place for everyone as “competitors”, we’re here waiting to help for when their snake oil is shown for what is, and we won’t judge you because or job is not to judge prior mistakes, but to help improve things for everyone.
