More and better unplanned accessibility testing

It's Friday afternoon. RantWoman is  hiding from wildfire haze and chilling out in AC and filtered air at the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing. RantWoman has Things to Do but first the world is entitled to the Rant of the Week about unplanned accessibility testing.

RantWoman wants to credit light years of progress compared to previous decades and is not sure whether it is good or bad to know that she is not alone in vexations: there are PLENTY of ways to deliver inaccessible content, but reputable organizations AT LEAST use automated accessibility testing tools. However  the testing tools are imperfect. They tend to excel at detecting that a site is say 95% accessible but not to detect that a blind user cannot do some absolutely necessary step like creating a sign-in or authorzing payment on some shopping sites.

Examples on the not-alone front:

Chatter among blind employees at several different companies about accessibility and project management tools. Discussion backed up by comments on ablind programmers list: one programmer says he uses one tool as little as possible. He says he as the skills to code some of the needed fixes but coding those fixes is not really his job. Advice from the list: try a different browser, oh and a different screen reader as well. Frownie face.

RantWoman has in mind a couple projects that might also benefit from project management tools, but there is no way RantWoman is even going to suggest such tools to her much less techie collaborators unless she is sure they are accessible or Unless RantWoman can understand enough how they work to instruct other people. RantWoman is about to suggest to one user that, for other reasons besides an inaccessible tool, his office probably could benefit from some clerical support. Stay tuned.

A job applicant for a large local employer reported that 15 of 16 screens for the online job application were accessible to him. The one that was not: the one where applicants are invited to self-identify about having a disability or probably other characteristics. Recruiting managers like being able to compile statistics. Applicants have long discussions about when to disclose one's disability. Some job application processes also require applicants to disclose in order to request reasonable accommodations during the application and interview process.

At a recent social occasion, RantWoman met a very nice young dev who got assigned to work on accessibility at one large local software company. Young dev asked RantWoman about her experience. RantWoman did not want either to discourage the young dev or to try to sound concise after a glass of wine. So RantWoman led with softballs about honest and well-meaning PR.

Now RantWoman is just going to name names. RantWoman realizes it might be more courteous to address companies directly, but RantWoman is a little politeness challenged.

RantWoman has been trying to interact with Signup Genius. Today RantWoman in Internet Explorer got as far as the I'm not a robot CAPTCHA while trying to create a sign-in. Buttons did not read. When RantWoman finally found the audio version, RantWoman clicked on the link several times and could never get an audio challenge. Sigh.

Still no signing up to wash dishes for RantWoman in the faith community. RantWoman did put the brand and the word accessibility into a search engine and noticed lots of items about marketing to schools and back to school. So RantWoman really should follow through....

RantWoman was not having enough fun with Signup Genius so RantWoman also decided to wade into Reddit. RantWoman put Reddit and accessibility into asearch engine. The results list looked a lot more promising than what turned up for Signup Genius, but RantWoman did not really feel like reading a lot of promises. RantWoman appreciates that Reddit says it is very firm about posting accessible content. RantWoman wishes she could say either the Android app or the Internet Explorer experience with Reddit's  own site held up.

RantWoman waded into Reddit partly as a public service after listening to people new to town complain about the pedestrian accessibility problems caused by tent campers taking up the whole sidewalk downtown. RantWoman knows two blind social workers in different parts of the homelessness services sector whose expertise she may call on. RantWoman has also poked around some information and referral pathways and has opinions based on other activities as well. So why not wade into what is good or bad about @MayorJenny inviting local software companies to see what they have to offer about meeting the needs of the growing homeless population.

RantWoman's Twitter feed served up an announcement about a Reddit event with the police department representative to the Nav Team, the team of people who try to connect unhoused people with resources and to exert control over unauthorized camping. RantWoman downloaded the Reddit app to her phone. Luckily RantWoman was able to follow the discussion on her phone without creating a sign-in. RantWoman says this with caution though: RantWoman can do more visually on her phone and cannot attest that a totally blind person would be able to do what she did.

However, RantWoman found lots of unlabeled buttons on the homescreen. RantWoman also some path to request help, except the path to request help wanted to know RantWoman's Reddit sign-in. Hello. RantWoman has not created a sign-in because of all the unlabeled buttons on the phone app, and because in Explorer with JAWS she has not been able to find an option to sign up. RantWoman has been able to read enough of the links on the screen to see there are probably some useful threads if RantWoman needs to add more content to her life.

(Speaking of irate content, it has been awhile since RantWoman poked around  in Nextdoor, which is popular in Seattle. One reason: problems RantWoman only vaguely remembers. RantWoman will put ask another blind person on her to-do list before grumbling too loudly, but...)

RantWoman, alas, is uncertain that the level of vehemence in discussions about homelessness are much different on Reddit than in social media streams and interpersonal circles where RantWoman already swims. So again, stay tuned.