Re: Concerns with Accessibe joining W3C

 Peter:
 We have tried and tried  to get them to understand our stance and they
just shut us  down and accuse us of trying to protect our jobs. I am rather
offended  by them because they are calling us hostile and then saying we
have no credibility. I don't know about any of you but frankly if I ever
put myself out of work I would cheer for  joy and   someone say
ing I am  blocking accessibility by asking for  standards that this very
group created has no sense of what impact that has.

 The worst part of products like  these overlays is they make the disabled
person out to be a lawsuit waiting to happen and not a customer   or a
collaborator  that cares about the needs of every one.

I am truly frightened by some of the claims they are making because I think
it's putting us the people with  disabilities in a bad light and pushing
our needs under a durrty bandaid  that spreads the infections.
lucy
Lucia Greco
Web Accessibility Evangelist
IST - Architecture, Platforms, and Integration
University of California, Berkeley
(510) 289-6008 skype: lucia1-greco
http://webaccess.berkeley.edu
Follow me on twitter @accessaces



On Thu, May 27, 2021 at 12:53 PM Karen Lewellen <klewellen@shellworld.net>
wrote:

> This is a fine question peter.
> I might wonder if the answer speaks for itself?
> Given that  w3c efforts predate this company by a great deal, if there
> were interested in learning they  might have been here already. Not to
> mention actually incorporate aspects of the w3c into their work.
> Just my thoughts,
> Karen
>
>
>
> On Thu, 27 May 2021, Peter Shikli wrote:
>
> > Sheri,
> >
> > I share your concern.  I feel Accessibe often looks to make money more
> than to improve the accessibility of online resources.  The question is
> would we further the interests of the disable by excluding Accessibe, or
> might we improve on the situation by bringing our concern to Accessibe as
> part of the polite, collegial, collaborative atmosphere of the W3C?
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Peter Shikli
> > Access2online Inc.
> >
> > ----------------------------------------
> > From: Sheri Byrne Haber <sbyrnehaber@vmware.com>
> > Sent: 5/27/21 9:55 AM
> > To: "w3c-WAI-ig@w3.org" <w3c-WAI-ig@w3.org>
> > Subject: Concerns with Accessibe joining W3C
> >
> > Accessibe announced yesterday that they are planning on joining (or have
> joined, I'm not sure which) W3C.
> >
> > Please refer to  https://accessibe.com/company/roadmap for details
> >
> > For those of you not familiar with AccessiBe, they are probably the
> largest and certainly the loudest of the "accessibility overlay"
> companies.  They make claims about one line of code and a small monthly
> payment eliminating accessibility lawsuit risk. In reality, 10 % of
> lawsuits now being filed (including the lawsuit against ADP filed by
> Lighthouse) are against plaintiffs using these overlays because they can't
> and don't make a site WCAG compliant. There is a website called
> OverlayFactSheet.com started by Karl Groves, where over 400 accessibility
> professionals (including me) have signed a public commitment not to support
> solutions that take away user's assistive technology and substitute another
> tool in its place.
> >
> > Clearly, I have significant reservations about W3C accepting any
> overlay/tool/widget company as a member.  I've looked on the W3C website
> and do not see any membership code of ethics.  We did spend quite a bit of
> time developing one for IAAP.
> >
> > Am I alone in this, or is this a general concern?
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Sheri
> >
> > Sheri Byrne-Haber (She/Her/Hers)
> > Staff II, Accessibility Architect
> >
> >
> >
>
>