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Comment by TimK65 | Hacker News Reader

Way to spit in the faces of disabled people!

So if i am building my own house i should also spend thousands of dollars more to make it accessible? If my house isnt accessible do i also spit disabled people in the face?

> So if i am building my own house i should also spend thousands of dollars more to make it accessible?

Well, you don't know what tomorrow you will need. I remember my grandmother needing to make the house accessible after my grandfather lost control of half his body after a stroke.

And those accessibility enhancements are not a problem even if they're not directly needed anymore: no steps between rooms, big sliding doors, lot of space for the shower etc. Even able people can appreciate those.

Whats the issue with getting them once they are needed?

It may be harder to had them or more expensive. And the fact you suddenly need them also mean there are low chances you'll be able to do the work yourself.

Like: build a house on only one floor so no stairs => no need for elevators later on. But it requires more floor space.

> So if i am building my own house i should also spend thousands of dollars more to make it accessible? If my house isnt accessible do i also spit disabled people in the face?

not hiding the scrollbars on your website doesn't cost you thousands of dollars so I don't really see the equivalence

Yea but theres a difference in showing scrollbars and making the whole website accessible.

HTML is accessible by default. Problems only arise when you try to be clever.

That's a poor analogy - a house is private property which only you and invited guests may enter. A website you publish on the Internet can be viewed by anyone who discovers it. Not including accessibility features excludes disabled users from reaping the benefits of your site. So a better analogy would be "if I build a public space do I have to make it accessible?" You betcha!

I guess this is a philosophical discourse. I simply build my own apps not for everyone and its not my problem if someone has a problem with that. If I build something thats meant for the public I try to build it accessible, but only if I feel like its needed. Seems like there is a market for accessibility software, why not jump on it? Why isn't the accessibility software good enough to not make the devs go extra steps on projects that are clearly not meant for everyone? The internet is for everyone, sure. My apps aren't. Simple as that.

Sooner or later, you will be less able than you are now. Everyone faces disability, it's just a matter of when, or how rapidly it happens.

I already face disability as i have to wear glasses to see properly. Still wont change the fact that I wont put the burden of making my apps accessible onto myself as they clearly aren't meant for disabled people and/or people that I don't want to use my app.

What happens if you drop your glasses and they break. Will you squint & hunt for your scrollbars ?

I'd buy new glasses.

> Why isn't the accessibility software good enough to not make the devs go extra steps on projects that are clearly not meant for everyone?

Is it not an extra step to intentionally hide the scroll bar? And thus, simply no extra work to just... not? Scrolls bars are a convenient feature for all users, nobody is judging the appearance of your website around how it looks with a scroll bar.

Try building a modern looking website only for scrollbars to look like they are from 1990. They break immersion. Especially on artsy websites that try to immerse people.

This is like people who use synonyms prolifically, replacing all of their words so that lexical units do not repeat. It appears jarring and somewhat pretentious, past a certain point: readers will rarely notice the common UI paradigms which they have come to expect, but viewers assuredly become aware upon contradictory circumstances such as absence. Some feel these pseudo-minimalistic phenomena are grating. You intend greatness alongside immersion, however an effect most contrary may occur.

Art? Nah. (Maybe once.) Dead horse gimmick, now.

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