Digital Log

    Plain-Lang-Writing

    Plain Language Writing — An Essential Part Of Accessibility

    • Much of historical accomodations are physical: e.g. braille, sign language, captions...
      • what about cognitive accessible for those with intellectual, developmental, or learning disabilities?
      • enter "plain language"
    • Plain language
      • aims to increase accessibility for those with cognitive disabilities
      • does not aim to simplify or reduce information
      • no definitive standard, however:
        • try to maximize commonly used words
        • minimize syllables
        • shorter sentences
        • shorter paragraphs, with a clear topic sentence
        • active over passive voice
        • simple fonts
        • more whitespace
        • measure accessibility with grade-level scoring tools

    Plain Language Guidelines

    AccessiBe

    AccessiBe is a tech company that tries to make the web more accessible for blind people. They make AI-powered web overlays that automatically reformat existing web pages to be more accessible. Their goal is to make the entire internet accessible to people with disabilities by 2025.

    However, many disabled people and disability rights activists criticize AccessiBe. They say that the company's software makes websites less accessible. Some specific issues are:

    • tables become incomprehensible
    • drop-down menus become hidden
    • the alternate text added to images is misleading or nonsensical
    • the software only works with HTML pages, and not other formats like PDFs.

    Further, they also argue that the company markets its product as a way to avoid lawsuits. Small business owners are afraid of being sued, so they pay AccessiBe for their product. This results in more websites that have not been developed with a disability-friendly design. Overall, the outcome is worse for disabled people.

    Leadership of the most impacted: The AccessiBe technology fails to address this principle of disability justice. Disabled people are saying that this software is actively harmful. They also say the business model hinders broader development of disability-friendly websites. We should let disabled people take the lead. This means we need take their advice: uninstall the AccessiBe tool, and put in the hard work to educate software engineers to make sites more accessible.

    However, we should recognize that AccessiBe has demonstrated their intention to abide by this principle. They have put a blind person, Michael Hingson, into a leadership role at the company.

    Anti-capitalist Politic: AccessiBe is a for-profit company that is selling assistive technology. Disability activists claim that the company has positioned their product as a way to avoid lawsuits, rather than make their websites accessible to disabled people. Thus, AccessiBe is in conflict with this principle of disability justice.

    Interdependence: This principle of disability justice states that "we meet each others’ needs as we build toward liberation, knowing that state solutions inevitably extend into further control over our lives." While AccessiBe is a private company, its product is similar to a state solution. For instance, it is a top-down solution that papers over fundamental problems across the internet. It is also an excuse for website owners to avoid their duty in meeting the needs of disabled people. Thus, AccessiBe fails to address this principle. Instead, individual website owners should help meet everyone's needs, including disabled people.

    Remedy: AccessiBe can better align itself with the disability justice movement. For one thing, they need to listen to the disabled end users. There should be focus groups and surveys. The company should have objective and public goals with these surveys. And they need to fix the technical problems that arise.

    However, AccessiBe's business model is problematic. A better business model would be a non-profit that provides consulting and education. They could be hired by tech companies to educate and train employees on how to build accessible websites. This business model would fit better with the Anti-capitalist politic and Interdependence principles of disability justice.