A Little Jaded on Accessibility?
First, before this post begins, it is fine to disagree with me. This is my view and you can subscribe to the theories of other schools of thought. No problems. But hear my view.
Point blank: it is wrong to expect users to know how to use browsers simply because the web has progressed or x number of years have elapsed.
Discuss: there is a danger through attribution that we place expectation on others based on our own knowledge and experience. Its what we naturally do as humans. There are always going to be some people who haven’t used computers for much more than grabbing an email, if at all. When I went back to school five years ago I had to ask how to turn the computer on so I am aware of the inherent arrogance in that expectation.
Point blank: it is wrong to expect that users have the same exposure, information and experience as us when designing interfaces for them. We are the abnormal example.
Discuss: the majority of people I know or associate with BY FAR are not computer literate. If they are then it is the equivalent of having attended kindergarten rather than high school. Espousing that everyone should know how to use keyboard shortcuts or even that the back button works is inherently flawed. Back buttons sometimes don’t work and we can’t know what the user’s expectation is simply because we know the back button exists.
Point blank: it is wrong to assert that the focus of accessibility is primarily about blind people’s experience.
Discuss: a friend of mine who is manic depressive and suffers from enormous difficulties asked me during the year to show her how to use the web. Ten years of shock treatment and medication have reduced this 35 year old woman to being unable to effectively use a mouse to double click or hit target links. Isolation has kept her from understanding what I would now call simple concepts. Accessibility is about this person and everyone else on the web inclusive rather than exclusive of their circumstance (for example, trained technical expertise).
Rule of thumb: don’t listen to people tell you that because they’re surrounded by people who use computers for everything that it follows that everyone is now up to a certain speed. That is just bollocks.
There will always be learners. There will always be those who have some degree of obstacle. Saying that they should be able to fix something in the browser is one thing but to attest that its entirely their problem and I shouldn’t develop with their interest in mind – that’s not so. I’m sorry but we may as well expect everyone to have degrees in horticulture when they arrive at a plant nursery.
After a while in this industry there is always the chance we’re going to become a little jaded about all of this and just expect others are now smart like we are. The flaw of course is similar to my mechanic now expecting me to be able to service my own car simply because I’ve been driving it for the last ten years. See my point?
[This is a quiet response to listening to a relatively recent presentation on accessiblity by an accessibility authority - I'm sorry but if I was there I'd be saying bollocks into a big black hat!!!]
