boost: Mainstream Media Covers Assistive Tech

[jesse_the_k]

Proximal to the 32nd anniversary of the ADA’s passage, The Verge hosted Accessibility Week, with the accurate deck: Technology promises a universally accessible world — and only sometimes manages to deliver.

The ten features run from service journalism — how to turn on your screen reader — to the barriers created by web design. One of my favorite reporters, s.e.smith, had this to say regarding online animation:

Every time I click a link, I have to ask myself if it’s going to be Bozo the clown or something delightful and captivating that I will be happy to have encountered.

All of us find the internet stimulating, but I find it extremely stimulating, specifically when it comes to animated and moving content — and not in a good way. Something about the wiring of my brain makes it difficult to process animations or repetitive movements, like the blinker you’ve left on for the last five miles, turning them into an accessibility issue: a website with animated content is difficult and sometimes impossible to use because the movement becomes all I can think about.

https://www.theverge.com/23191768/animation-accessibility-neurodivergence

Comments

[sovay]

a website with animated content is difficult and sometimes impossible to use because the movement becomes all I can think about.

I don't find animated content brain-hacking in the same way as this person, but I strongly prefer text to video or audio and the increasing tendency of the internet to be full of little embedded streaming clips is extremely difficult for me.

Sympathy!

[jesse_the_k]

...happily there are browser-hackers who make it easier to suppress these auto-play options.

For Safari macOS and iOS, https://underpassapp.com/StopTheMadness/ Stop the Madness suppresses gifs as well as video autoplays.

Appreciated!

[sovay]

...happily there are browser-hackers who make it easier to suppress these auto-play options.

That's pretty awesome. Thank you!

Re: Appreciated!

[tarasacon]

seconded!

[mdlbear]

I found it particularly ironic -- and typical -- that all of the articles including the one against animation, started off with a video ad that ran automatically.

[jesse_the_k]

Jeezuzz Christ on a motorized pickle.

Super strength browser blockers make it possible for me to never see that sort of shit.

[vass]

s.e. smith and I have that in common. Not as severely as they have it, and with different specifics, but I fully agree with the desire to be able to just make ALL the moving images opt-in.

And it's not just the internet, where unlike smith I have no compunction at all about using adblockers.

I can't walk into a shopping centre without bright moving images on the signs I have to walk past to get in the door. I can't even buy petrol some places without having to avert my eyes from the compulsory ads right above the display telling me how much petrol I'm buying! There's audio too!

Ask me about brightly lit moving picture ads designed specifically to catch the attention of drivers! Or don't, the response is just screaming. This has got to be a traffic hazard for NTs too, right? Not as much as it is for me, sure, but they are deliberately trying to distract people while they drive. There's this huge animated billboard at an intersection without lights in particular.

Yessss to all the no.

[jesse_the_k]

The worst wow/splash/video tendencies from the net are sneaking into daily life.

Your animated billboard is particularly horrifying.

<grim thought>COVID was a short-term adblocker for daily life</grim thought>

Re: Yessss to all the no.

[vass]

It occurred to me just now that an A4 sheet of paper and four blobs of Blu-Tack would be a short-term adblocker for the petrol ads. Maybe light cardstock, in black, even, to make it less translucent. Spraypaint would be more permanent, of course, but petrol stations have security cameras everywhere, and if I turn off the adblocker when I'm done then they can't charge me with vandalism.

Re: Yessss to all the no.

[jesse_the_k]

Go for it!

[sovay]

There's audio too!

There are some shops around here that play music outside their doors and I think that should be prohibited by the Geneva Convention.

This has got to be a traffic hazard for NTs too, right?

I can't imagine how not. Motion is an attention-grabber. It is my understanding that this is just true of the human brain.

[talkswithwind]

I've ended up disabling or turning off animations in every chat-app I use. Much the same reason. OSX likes to have app icons bounce when there is something it needs to say — hate that. Don't try to suck my attention, I have a hard enough time focusing in front of a computer as it is.

Oh, I hear you

[jesse_the_k]

I sit down to do one thing and 45 minutes later I've glanced at 43 tasks and completed none of them.

https://howchoo.com/mac/disable-mac-icon-bounce shows a Terminal command that supposed to turn off dock bounce.

[bluedreaming]

This doesn’t work for unfamiliar websites, but I’ve taken to using Adblocker Ultimate to wholesale block/hide sections of websites that are distracting/upsetting/etc. It’s like (in a small way) reclaiming the internet.

[jesse_the_k]

I'm glad to hear it!