How Privilege Defines Performance
summary
Claim: product teams define performance from privileged defaults, which produces measurable harm — the WCAG Majestic Million finds most sites with at least 69 accessibility errors (low contrast, missing alt, empty links, labels, language), testing centers expensive iPhones and ignores cheaper global phones, and a study finds ride-share drivers earning about $0.30/hour. Examples: a TinyFaces plugin using a male/female toggle, cameras failing on darker skin, self-driving cars hitting Black pedestrians more. Fixes: include demographics in design systems, hire and empower marginalized people, replace assumed empathy with trust in lived experience.
AI-written summary · about
chapters (7)
- 0:00Introduction and speaker background
- 7:28Defining privilege in tech
- 14:35Confronting our own privilege
- 25:30Admitting bias and ignorance
- 33:36Expanding our worldview beyond defaults
- 37:49Sharing power and dismantling systems
- 40:40Commitment to relentless resistance
related talks
34mHow Privilege Defines Performance
50mHow Privilege Defines Performance
26mPrivilege as a Technical Debt
24mPrivilege as a technical debt
49mAccessibility and Performance
54mAn empathy exercise: contextualising the question of privilege
49mDeconstructing Privilege
51mPlease Don’t Let Accessibility Become the Next DEI in Tech