[NFBCS] Looking for advice on advocating for accessibility

[Justin Ekis]

Hi everyone,

I’d like to solicit your input on how to best educate a company on a badly misguided policy related to accessibility. I’m intentionally  not naming the company here, and would ask anyone who can determine who it is to do likewise. I am not interested in initiating a flood of angry tweets and emails. I’d like to handle this diplomatically, with an attitude of educating rather than shaming. 

First, some background. My partner and I have been doing occasional work for a mainstream company which does testing of web sites and mobile apps. They conduct testing in a wide range of focus areas, including accessibility. We first got connected to them when they were recruiting for an accessibility test, but we have both branched out into doing general usability and functionality testing with them as well.

Yesterday we were both invited to a new study for one of our favorite online services, and she got around to this one first. As she was completing the study, one of the survey questions asked for her input on a potential new feature the client was considering. The information about the proposed feature was included in an image. After trying workarounds such as running the image through Seeing AI, she emailed one of the test engineers for the project, asking for information about the image so she could continue with the project. Here is the reply she received: 

Unfortunately, this is not an Inclusive or Accessibility study, so the survey is not designed to be accessible for screen readers. If you have someone that can help you describe the images please go ahead and complete the survey.

At this point, she went to the slack workspace for the project, and sent a group Direct Message to the four test team leads to see if that reply was really in line with actual policy. One of the leads responded that this was “the proper answer according to the objectives of this study.” The original Test Engineer then sent this message on slack (I have removed the company’s name): 

“My intention was not to be disrespectful with you in any way. I am a Test Engineer focused on Usability and I run all kinds of studies, including Accessibility and Inclusive studies. I have a group with blind testers I work with very often. However, $company has different testing areas, and this study is not designed for accessibility or screen readers, that is the reason your screen reader is not able to go through the survey properly. You are welcome to finish the survey if you have someone that can guide you.

I made the suggestion that since they repeatedly told her to get sighted help, she could ask in the General channel to see if one of the other testers would describe the images. Within three minutes, her message was deleted from the channel. Back in the group DM thread, She asked why this was done and was told that one of the team leads deleted the message to keep the conversation private between them. I wonder if they would have done this if she hadn’t publicly referenced the earlier conversation.

Within 5 minutes of the deletion, another Test engineer reached out privately and offered to connect on zoom and describe the images. Once connected, the whole process lasted less than 10 minutes and was completely painless. 

This idea that only accessibility studies need to be accessible is obviously bogus. What I don’t know is whether this came from the Team Leads for this particular test, or whether it is company policy that they are following. Either way, I want to address it with someone up the chain. I want to strike a tone of cooperation and education rather than being adversarial. I’ve tried to imagine what I might say, but I’m having trouble coming up with anything that doesn’t sound either confrontational or condescending. I’d be open to any input you all might have. Please reply to all so that my partner can see your suggestions as well.

Thanks, 

Justin