[NFBCS] Never Go Live Until The Bugs Are Killed!

Littlefield, Tyler tyler at tysdomain.com
Thu Nov 14 21:31:06 UTC 2019


Hi Peter,
I'm not sure what you were hoping to accomplish with this post. In a 
happy world where unicorns travel around on rainbows, this would be the 
case, and accessibility issues would prevent sites from going live. 
Unfortunately, sometimes known security issues don't even prevent sites 
from going live, much less accessibility issues.

While I'm happy you and your wife found certain sites accessible, it is 
worth note that the few NFB sites you worked on and their deployment is 
nothing at all like releasing a multi-platform service like Disney's 
service, and that deadlines and other issues change. If an affiliate 
doesn't have a site up by a specific day but does a couple days later, 
chances are no one is going to lose a lot of money; this isn't the case 
for other companies.

I do wish, much like you that accessibility were taken into 
consideration for all products released, but this is where we have the 
ability to make changes. Whining about the NFB's involvement with Disney 
not creating a service that is 100% accessible is not the solution to 
this problem, nor is regaling us with heroic tales of days gone by where 
you refused to release a site to a small group of people until all 
issues were resolved, and posting tidbits like this to the NFBCS list. 
Instead, I would suggest that we, as a group of blind people who are 
technically inclined look for ways to educate developers on 
accessibility and what it means. I don't expect this to work over night; 
websites are still built using old and outdated MYSQL libraries in PHP 
because so much bad code is out there and floating around, but I do 
expect that in time it will have an impact and make a difference.

TL/DR: developers can't even get on board with good security practices 
that will make their services and applications accessible in many 
instances, so I don't anticipate accessibility issues being the global 
road blocker for the release of a product such as this. I suggest that 
we spend time educating and demonstrating. For example, what about 
reaching out to colleges where web development languages are being 
taught as part of computer science programs and finding professors to 
talk to about accessibility and WCAG? This could even go as far as 
talking to classes teaching IOS and android development. The problem 
here is going to be breaking down good accessibility practices, because 
simply aiming someone at the WCAG specifications is not going to solve 
the problem. The issue is that this requires less armchair warrior and 
more action.

Thanks,
On 11/14/2019 1:37 PM, Peter Donahue via NFBCS wrote:
> Good afternoon everyone,
>
> 	It's never exceptible for a new company Website to go live until all known bugs and potential issues such as accessibility for blind visitors have been resolved. Given Disney's past history of working with the NFB on Web accessibility they could have had us conduct beta tests prior to Disney Plus going live to the general public avoiding the backlash they're getting from the blind community.
>
> 	I used to build NFB Websites. Those who know remember that I never brought a site live until all known issues were resolved. I know of another well-known company that recently updated its World-Wide Website. Unlike Disney they invited several blind persons I know to work with the site development team at their corporate headquarters. When the new Website finally went live Mary and I along with others were very pleased with the work that was done to insure site accessibility. If more companies pursued partnerships with the blind community when preparing to launch a new website or to update existing sites we would have more of them. Viewing ourselves as the "Little fish in the sea" won't help matters either. Our ability to access Websites is as important as it is for other John Q. Public site visitors and we should behave like it.
>
> Peter Donahue
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NFBCS [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kevin via NFBCS
> Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2019 10:50 AM
> To: Star Gazer
> Cc: Kevin; NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [NFBCS] Successfully Subscribed To Disney Plus
>
> Do to other responsibilities.  Site design, security issues such as
> handling bug reports, updating content, and many more things that go
> into it.
>
>
> On 11/14/2019 11:08 AM, Star Gazer wrote:
>> Why though
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>>> On Nov 14, 2019, at 10:36 AM, Kevin <kevinsisco61784 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> It isn't acceptable it is simply a reality.
>>>
>>>
>>>> On 11/14/2019 7:50 AM, Star Gazer wrote:
>>>>              Exactly right.
>>>> Why wouldn't be a number one priority when accessibility means that they can legally part more customers from their money?
>>>> Why does the size of the corporation make bad behavior acceptable?
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Kevin <kevinsisco61784 at gmail.com>
>>>> Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2019 6:17 PM
>>>> To: Star Gazer <pickrellrebecca at gmail.com>; NFB in Computer Science Mailing List <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
>>>> Subject: Re: [NFBCS] Successfully Subscribed To Disney Plus
>>>>
>>>> They are a huge corporation and I'm sure they were getting it. Maybe this wasn't there number one priority.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> On 11/13/2019 5:12 PM, Star Gazer wrote:
>>>>> Why? Disney should have gotten it right before the site ever went live.
>>>>>
>>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>>>
>>>>>> On Nov 13, 2019, at 5:02 PM, Kevin via NFBCS <nfbcs at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I get what you're saying but that's life sometimes.  It is what it is.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 11/13/2019 12:52 PM, Tracy Carcione via NFBCS wrote:
>>>>>>> Sounds to me like there really was a problem, until Curtis spoke up and Disney fixed it.
>>>>>>> As for work-arounds to get accessibility, OK, to a point, but I am really tired of jumping through multiple hoops to get what other people just get as a matter of course.
>>>>>>> I'm glad things are working well now.
>>>>>>> Tracy
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>>>> From: NFBCS [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kevin via NFBCS
>>>>>>> Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2019 12:40 PM
>>>>>>> To: nfbcs at nfbnet.org
>>>>>>> Cc: Kevin
>>>>>>> Subject: Re: [NFBCS] Successfully Subscribed To Disney Plus
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> This is great news!  I think this just goes to show us that jumping the
>>>>>>> gun is never a good idea.  We must keep in mind that while things may
>>>>>>> not be perfectly accessible we always have workarounds.  As the saying
>>>>>>> goes there's more than one way to skin a cat.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On 11/12/2019 11:10 PM, Peter Donahue via NFBCS wrote:
>>>>>>>> Hello everyone,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>                         This evening I successfully subscribed to Disney Plus using
>>>>>>>> Firefox and JAWS 2019 under Windows 7. I was able to complete the signup
>>>>>>>> process without assistance. I watched an episode of Disneynature and began
>>>>>>>> adding content to our watchlist. The interface works similar to Netflix.
>>>>>>>> Once I logged in I was able to navigate the website without trouble.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>                         While I was able to subscribe and explore the Disney Plus
>>>>>>>> Website using Firefox it still doesn't work well with Google Chrome. I was
>>>>>>>> able to move around without difficulty using Internet Explorer but was
>>>>>>>> unable to get content to play. This looks to me like it's a matter of a
>>>>>>>> missing IE component rather than an accessibility issue. We obviously got
>>>>>>>> someone's attention at Disney Streaming to address the issues blind people
>>>>>>>> are having with signing up for and using Disney Plus. Now to see if the
>>>>>>>> English version of the Disney Plus Apps are available for iOS and Apple TV.
>>>>>>>> I'll keep you posted on my progress. All the best.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>      Peter Donahue
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>          _______________________________________________
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>>>>>>>
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>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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-- 

Take Care,
Tyler Littlefield

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