Website Accessibility
I used the Website Accessibility eValuation Tool on the website of an institution that I used to work with. As part of my role at this institution, I updated the social media accounts, but I did not have the opportunity to work on the website. The website was quite outdated and has always had a uniform format, a paint-by-numbers style. It is part of a larger educational institution, so it should follow accessibility regulations, specifically The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.
The most recurrent issue on the website was a lack of alternative text for screen readers and images that may not load. There were also several redundant and empty links and the language of documents were often not defined. The font of the website was also italicised and difficult to read.
Gendered Experiences
It is a bit outdated and exclusionary that I must still choose a salutation when completing online forms, why does the pizza shop need to know my gender? “Mx” is a great gender neutral option for a salutation and is supposed to be accepted by the UK government, but it is not uniformly applied as an option with government forms and other important aspects of daily life, like banking.
Gendered selections were even a problem with Bitmoji. I downloaded the app as part of Thing 5 and was thrilled with the amount of options for customisation. However, before I even started, I had to choose from a binary definition of gender and as I chose woman, I could only choose clothing for women (with the exception of some sports wear) even though I normally have a more androgynous style. The app could have easily skipped this option and the app would be even more customisable with a greater audience if you could choose from all customisable options.
I think I will use this quote from Sabrina Fonseca in daily life, “If you don’t know why you’re asking, then you probably don’t need to know the answer.” – from Designing forms for gender diversity and inclusion, uxdesign.cc, April 2017
UNDEF-ANON 