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Comment by mu_killnine | Hacker News Reader

As an enterprise software developer who makes software for 'internal' customers, I've not really had to address the issue of accessibility. However, I find this really neat and hope I can be more mindful about it moving forward.

Pretty neat to see how much effort was put into this.

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Even for internal apps, it might pay to think about accessibility... e.g. imagine someone who got hired to use the "internal app" was a Marine vet who lost vision to an IED or something... if your company is following the law, you have to provide the same opportunity for him to work there and use that "internal" app as everyone else. Maybe there's some reason why that would never be the case, but devs tend to think of the issue of accessibility much too narrowly.

We need easily accessible tools. I used to ignore mobile viewport sizes. Now Chrome has button to emulate smartphone or iPad. I can check my web page with a single click. So I often spend a bit of time to ensure that it at least works good enough in mobile. I did not see anything comparable for blind users. If Chrome developers would add something similar to their developer console, I bet, a lot of new pages will be checked.

The axe extension is very nicely done: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/axe/lhdoppojpmngad...

There is an incredibly full-featured accessibility audit in Chrome's dev tools:

https://developers.google.com/web/tools/chrome-devtools/acce...

On top of that, there are a lot of Chrome extensions to do all sorts of great things to help you test for accessibility:

ChromeVox - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chromevox/kgejglhp...

Colorblinding - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/colorblinding/dgbg...

aXe - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/axe/lhdoppojpmngad...

Color Contrast Testing - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/color-contrast-ana...

No Coffee - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/nocoffee/jjeeggmbn...

HeadingsMap - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/headingsmap/flbjom...

Wave - https://wave.webaim.org/extension/

ARIA Validator - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/aria-validator/oig...

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Lack of tools is definitely not the issue.

Thats not entirely accurate. The ADA requires reasonable accommodations, not "the same opportunity". Wether or not making an internal webapp more accessible is reasonable will depend on a lot of other factors.

However, I agree that generally speaking designing your apps to be accessible from the beginning is the right thing to do, and generally results in an easier to use interface for everyone!

I was considering more "good faith effort" w.r.t. https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/disability.cfm but tbh I wish devs would just do the right thing more and less pretend to be lawyers to get away with doing as little as they can to make usable things.

It's also important to keep in mind that some disabilities are temporary.

Someone with normally good vision could have undergone a procedure that leaves them with reduced vision for a while as they recover.

Someone could have a broken hand, or tendinitis, or any number of other temporary conditions that affect precise motion, vision or other physical abilities.

Hell it could be something as simple as they are holding their phone in their other hand and still need to navigate your interface so they have to tab through it with a keyboard instead of using a mouse or trackpad.

These people may still need to use your product during this time when their capacities are reduced in some way.

Accessibility benefits much more than just people with serious and visible disabilities. Accessible applications are better experiences for all users.

As another enterprise software developer we've been told by legal that we must be accessible per the ADA and that doing otherwise could be used to claim we discriminate (hostile work environment) against our disabled employees.

Title 1:

> Employers must provide reasonable accommodations to qualified applicants or employees. A reasonable accommodation is any modification or adjustment to a job or the work environment that will enable an applicant or employee with a disability to participate in the application process or to perform essential job functions.

With our software handling timecards/leave, inventory, reporting, payroll, etc it isn't realistic for us to claim someone could perform their "essential job function" if it weren't accessible.

That all being said: Our accessibility game isn't perfect. We've just tried to make pages work with screen readers, color-blindness, etc. We still have a lot of internal video content without subtitles however (or even a way to display subtitles).

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