Typically, the question of accessibility online is considered in technical terms: How does this website need to be designed? What ALT text is appropriate for this image? Are captions available for this video? And obviously, knowing the technical aspects of accessibility is important.
But if accessibility stops at the technical requirements, we forget that there are people on the other side of those checklists and manuals. We forget that even the most rigorous checklist can’t account for everyone and their experiences. We forget to ask critical questions that seem obvious when it comes to a backstage pass but are readily dismissed when it comes to most other social spaces.
In the 3rd episode of my 5-part series on Decoding Empathy, I talk with Erin Perkins, an accessibility educator and the founder of MabelyQ, and draw on the work of disability studies scholar Tanya Titchkosky to theorize the overlap between access and empathy—and what it means for you.
Footnotes:
Every episode of What Works is also available in essay form at whatworks.fyi
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This is Not Advice: Metrics, Incentives, and the Seduction of Clarity
EP 439: Expectations, Boundaries, and Making Work in Public with Randi Buckley
EP 438: Counterfeit Financial Culture with Manisha Thakor
EP 437: Leaving the Cult of Never Enough with Manisha Thakor
This is Not Advice: How Flexibility is Used and Abused
EP 436: The Myth of Rugged Individualism—and Hope for Something More (Remix)
EP 435: Self-Control, Surveillance, and the Body at Work (Classic)
This is Not Advice: Beyond Creating Versus Consuming
EP 434: What do we really want from social media? with Jay Acunzo
EP 433: What is Capitalist Realism? with Iggy Perillo
This is Not Advice: Accessibility Beyond the Checklist
EP 432: Queer Failure with Kate Tyson
EP 431: The Shoulds and Supposed-tos of Baking
This is Not Advice: Who is Responsible for Adapting?
EP 430: Why Does Authenticity So Often Feel Fake?
EP 429: Maybe bigger isn't better?
EP 428: "You paid WHAT for that?!" Or, How Echo Chambers Distort Prices and How We Think
This is Not Advice: Making Work That Can't Be Sold
EP 427: The Trust-Profit Paradox
EP 426: This is Not Advice: It's Our World, AI Just "Lives" In It
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