Grant All Privilegs
- Denise Bures
- 7. Jan. 2023
- 3 Min. Lesezeit
Confronting Bias and Privilege: A Deep Dive into the Importance of Accessibility
January 07 th, 2023 - written by Denise Bures
Web performance, accessibility, and inclusive design all strive to provide the best, most consistent experience to all users while minimizing the use of resources. However, these goals are not always achieved due to the unseen biases and privileges of product creators, who often lack empathy for their users. This results in products that are not accessible to marginalized groups.
Reflections on Tatiana Mac's Thought-Provoking Talk
Tatiana Mac gave a powerful talk at #PerfMatters 2019, in which she discussed the idea that all performance in the browser or on a device is a proxy for human performance on the other end of the wire. In this talk, she invited her audience to confront the reality of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy and its impact on everyone, before proceeding to dismantle it. Mac pointed out that privilege determines the starting point for an individual, rather than their potential, and while the amount of privilege one is born with is random, it is up to the individual to make the most of it. However, many people in higher positions, who are often white, wealthy, cisgender, able-bodied, and neurotypical, do not consider the needs of marginalized groups when creating products, leading to a lack of accessibility for these groups.
Tatiana Mac created the Privilege Plugin, a tool that highlights bias and the invisible barriers, or "privilege blocks," that discriminate against certain groups in various areas such as user segmentation, marketing and accessibility.
To create more inclusive products, it is important to trust the lived experiences of marginalized users over assumptions and exchange empathy for trust. Product creators must be mindful of their own biases and strive to build conscientiously, addressing systematic issues in order to create more effective, accessible, and inclusive systems for their users.
Nothing can be changed until it is faced. James Baldwin
According to Tatiana Mac's talk, everyone experiences some form of disadvantage due to societal norms and acknowledging our own privilege can help us understand and address these negative impacts. For example, suffering hair loss, having acne, being not that tall, etc. Having the luxury of being able to afford skin care, going to the doctor or getting a hair transplant, for example, show of great privilege. Not everyone has this opportunity, highlighting the fact that privilege can come in various forms and is not always visible. Some forms of privilege, such as racism and gender inequality, require more urgent attention and change.
Learning to Confront and Dismantle Privilege: My personal Key Takeaways
In the lectures with Eric Eggert, we have already talked about how to make technology and new developments - and especially the web - accessible to all: Navigation, responsive design, images, layout, video, audio and social media. But the fact that privilege goes so far as to affect the way websites are created was something I was never so aware of. I'm shocked to learn that a full 75 per cent of websites lack basic accessibility features.
This speech has driven me to self-reflection and made me aware of some things that I too can and should improve. As the internet and metaverse continue to expand, individuals have the ability to create content and products that can reach a global audience. It is important to recognize the power and responsibility that come with this ability and strive to create products that are inclusive and respectful of the diverse social identities of our global audience. And fundamentally, this knowledge and need is ingrained and present in me. Yet the prioritisation on my part is not where it should be, which scares me a lot. Having the knowledge and actually applying it are two different pairs of shoes.
When we relaunched our website last year, we did not take accessibility into consideration. For us, it wasn't priority one on our list. For someone else, it means not being able to follow what's going on in the world and being denied certain subject areas. So I’ve learned how to be more mindful in our all daily business as well as in our development and address systematic issues in order to think about more effective, accessible, and inclusive systems for users.
Tatiana Mac provides useful tips on how to improve communication through effective formatting, setting clear boundaries, and following proper etiquette. Adapting websites to the special needs of people with disabilities and other issues needs to be implemented into the consciousness of all of us. I include myself here. The alt-text that needs to be maintained often costs me a lot of time and annoys me when I see it on my to-do list. And far too often the To Do is forgotten or not maintained by me. But that's exactly what needs optimisation and rethinking. Just because it is not considered as important or time-consuming for me, it may be more than necessary for someone else.
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