#11: Making it up as I go

Hello, yes, I'm back and still chaotic

May 3, 2021

I have returned to fill your inbox with chaotic goodness. Taking April off from my normal content creation didn’t quite go as planned (Twitter owns my ass), but it still gave me room to think about everything I’m currently juggling.

When I started Accessible Social in January, I was trying very hard to emulate what was already out there. Several of my talented friends and peers have successful newsletters that they publish on a consistent schedule with equally consistent content and formatting.

I don’t think anyone would ever describe me as consistent. I’m more of a chaos girl, and now I’m going to make my own chaotic rules.

Accessible Social, despite being relatively short, is actually rather a lot for me to do every week. Sometimes I even struggle to find content to fill the sections, which is why I’m making Accessible Social a monthly newsletter instead of a weekly one. It will go out on the first Monday of every month. I’m also changing up the content. Everything will basically fall into two categories after my introductory letter: the good and the bad. Any updates I may have will go at the end.

If you want to abandon ship due to these course adjustments, I will understand, but it also won’t affect how I’ve decided to do things now. The past year has taught me that it’s important to listen to my brain when it starts sending out stress signals.

Alexa

The Good Stuff from April

So much news about upcoming caption features! It’s almost as if social media platforms are finally realizing that deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals also enjoy being online.

Captions Coming to TikTok

The long-awaited rollout of captions on TikTok is finally happening!

TikTokComms @TikTokComms

We're working to make TikTok more accessible and inclusive to support our diverse community and today we're announcing auto captions in the US, to help deaf or hard of hearing users enjoy our platform. Learn more on our Newsroom.

Introducing auto captionsBy Stephanie Hind, Manager, Creator Management and Operations, TikTok US Inclusivity is important because when people feel included, they’re more comfortable expressing themselves and engaging with thnewsroom.tiktok.com

Captions Also Coming to Facebook

Facebook has started experimenting with a captions feature for stories. And yes, I know this is technically from March, but it was revealed after the last issue of Accessible Social.

Alessandro Paluzzi @alex193a

#Facebook is working on an auto captioning feature for Stories to improve #accessibility 👀

Yo Adrián, You Did It!

And a little love for open captions. Aviation American Gin recently used them in a cute and cheeky way when they teamed up with LeVar Burton for a recent spot. I’ve heard that Aviation’s Brand Marketing Manager is rather good, too.

Aviation American Gin @AviationGin

The answer is: @levarburton ::Buzzer Sound:: What feels like cheating on @VancityReynolds but isn't? #LeVarBurtonForEverything

Best Practices for Captions

My friend Meryl will always be one of my go-to people when it comes to doing captions the right way. She created really great guidelines to help everyone get better at writing captions that I highly recommend checking out.

Meryl Evans speaks at #AccessU2021 May 18-20 @merylkevans

When you follow these captioning 10 best practices, you'll most likely have followed the general guidelines for high-quality captions: buff.ly/3gFq9Dm Quality captions matter, y'all! #Accessibility #A11y

Vintage TV screen with "The complete guide to captioned videos" on the screen

Biden Prioritizes Accessibility

It was nice to see the Biden Administration not only make the President’s recent joint address more accessible (as it always should be) but also share that information head of time.

President Biden @POTUS

To make tonight’s joint address accessible for all Americans, every White House livestream will have American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation for the first time in history. You can learn more about how to tune in here:

President Biden’s Joint Address to Congress 2021 | WhiteHouse.GovLivestream President Joe Biden’s first Joint Address to Congress on April 28, 2021. Because this is his first speech as President to a Joint Session of Congress, it is not called the State of the Union.whitehouse.gov

The Bad Stuff from April

This Isn’t Winning, Winn Dixie

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Winn Dixie in a recent case and increased the confusion around how much power the ADA has over the websites and apps of businesses. This was truly a step back for digital accessibility.

Kayla Goggin @KaylaGoggin_CNS

11th Circuit rules that websites are not places of public accommodation under Title III of the ADA, vacating a 2017 federal court ruling that @WinnDixie’s website violated the ADA by being inaccessible to screen reading software. Story coming soon! @CourthouseNews

Tankslapper Moment for Formula

Politicians and sports leagues really do love their flattened copy. This time it was Formula 1 doing the bad thing that y’all know I hate so much.

Formula 1 @F1

We are wholly committed to combatting any form of racism, online or otherwise We continue to call out and report any incident of online hate, and we encourage our fans to do the same

Not only is there no alt text on this image, but the tweet also fails to link out to a place where the full statement is available in a readable format, and the all-caps formatting is even hard for a sighted person to read. As I’ve repeatedly said before, there are much better ways to share statements like this.

Bit of a Grey Area

Queen Elizabeth’s husband died and all of Great Britain went into mourning including the National Rail network. Unfortunately, their mourning method of choice—shifting their entire website to greyscale—caused a number of issues for disabled users. My friend Ashlee wrote a great thread on it, but her “too long didn’t read” summary was also pretty good: WTF.

Ashlee Boyer 🦻 @AshleeMBoyer

I wrote a mini thread about my thoughts on this. Linking in the next tweet. TLDR wtf are they doing

National Rail @nationalrailenq

The National Rail website has been temporarily greyscaled as a mark of respect following the death of HRH Duke of Edinburgh. We are listening to feedback about how people are using the website and are making further changes today to make it more accessible to all our customers.

Still No Captions for Clubhouse

Despite announcing several new features for the app, Clubhouse still hasn’t shared any intentions of making the platform accessible for users who need captions. Truly disappointing for as popular as it is.

YT: Develop with Amina 👩🏽‍💻🌱 @yeahshewrites

Where’s the live captions feature? 👁

Clubhouse @joinClubhouse

Lastly, we have 3 new releases going live soon. New features support Club admins, including featuring upcoming shows on club profiles, easily inviting people to attend events, and more. In the meantime, we appreciate your patience. See you next Sunday at 9AM (PT) #CHTownhall https://t.co/4AX9u4Cs4c

Have you recently spotted a major digital accessibility win or fail on social media? Send it to me! I might just feature it in my next newsletter. Feel free to email me at hello@therealalexa.com or you can DM me on Twitter. My inbox is always open!

Scroll Stoppers

These bits of wisdom made me immediately stop and think harder. Hopefully, they get your brain fired up as well.

Emily Ladau @emily_ladau

Pssst: Accessibility isn’t actually accessible if the person requesting it is made to feel they should be apologetic for doing so.

Matt May @mattmay

You know what pro athletes drink during games? Not Gatorade. Water. Why? Because _being fit and well-trained_ is what made them pros. Gatorade sells the fiction that fitness for an activity can be achieved with sugar and food coloring. Overlays are Gatorade for accessibility.

Sommer Panage @Sommer

I can’t stop thinking about this. I love how the term “emotional accessibility” captures something I’ve struggled to put into words. It's more than a product being accessible. It should *feel* accessible and inclusive. It should invite *everyone* to use it.

Sommer Panage @Sommer

I love this: #Accessibility has 3 components: Functional, Technical, & Emotional. I think often in eng, we can forget about the 3rd. What is the 1st impression of the product? Does someone feel invited by it or rejected? Does the reaction meet the intent? https://t.co/ZcobHVKUYJ

Asian Knife Guy Jen Ramos (they/dude) 🇵🇭♿ @jenmacramos

disabilities aren't just obvious physical ones. there are disabilities you can't see. sports' casual ableism disregards the harm it is causing toward athletes who do have these disabilities and fans with disabilities. sports isn't ready for this conversation.

woo woo woo @McgarrDana

Accessibility isn’t more work, you were just cutting corners before. The work was incomplete.

Mark Your Calendar

I got things and stuff coming up! On May 12th I’ll be giving a pop culture-themed presentation on digital accessibility for my friend Brianne’s #PopChat Happy Hour. Based on the images I’ve sourced for this one, it’s guaranteed to be hilarious.

May 20th this year marks Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), an annual event that aims to get everyone talking, learning, and thinking more about accessibility. Much like last year, I’ll have tweets going out all day to help the cause and I encourage everyone to follow the #GAAD hashtag on Twitter.

In June I’ll be presenting at two different conferences that I’m excited to participate in. First up on June 16th is the All Day All Night Conference, a 24-hour phenomenon for social and digital professionals working in higher education.

The very next day on June 17th I’ll be a speaker for Social Fresh’s Virtual Conference alongside some very impressive people including several of my wonderful and talented friends.