Please Don’t Let Accessibility Become the Next DEI in Tech
summary
Argues that web accessibility is at risk of becoming tokenized and defunded like corporate DEI, cites layoffs and the rush-purchase of overlays are not a solution as concrete failures, and gives numbers: a 504-response survey shows 55% of accessibility practitioners do not identify as disabled and 56.9% are not neurodivergent. Shows real harms — inaccessible gender dropdowns, Bad Bunny captions omitting Spanish, mask refusals at conferences — and recommends concrete fixes like attach accessibility bugs to bonuses, paid compensation for labor, and separate accountability structures.
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chapters (9)
- 0:00Introduction and land ack
- 1:17Defining DEI and accessibility
- 4:20Root causes in corporate tech
- 9:31The impact of economic shifts
- 12:34White supremacy and eugenics
- 18:50Real-world application examples
- 26:29The dangers of systemic apathy
- 33:45Actionable strategies for change
- 41:06Q&A and concluding thoughts
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