[BlindMath] Strengthening our community approach to accessibility troubleshooting

[avery ingram]

Hello everyone,

We've all completed some aspect of this accessibility obstacle course in our own way. When I went through my own challenges with lack of accommodations, I didn't have much help, which is why I want to provide others on this list with the support I didn't have back then.

I completely understand the frustration when tools don't work and you need a quick solution. From the perspective of those offering help, we are donating time we don't always have much of, and doing the best we can. However, when we ask follow-up questions to diagnose an issue, we often don't get replies, which leaves us stuck. I mean this respectfully, but it's mentally exhausting to put in a lot of effort, and not have enough information to help adequately.

Please remember this as we work through obstacles together:
• If you ask for help on here, please be prepared to try out potential solutions and answer follow-up questions.
• If you ever have trouble testing something or aren't sure how to answer, please don't hesitate to ask for help with that step, too.
• Providing detailed and clear information—to the best of your ability—is what allows us to resolve your accessibility barrier as quickly and effectively as possible.
• Finding a solution will almost always require effort from both sides.
• Software setups vary a lot, and different people have tolerance for different accessibility bugs. That's a consequence of every type of software having different trade-offs.

We're all in this together. Let's do our best to work collaboratively and solve these problems as a team.

Best,

Avery