Post #2597316

2025-11-05 18:20 UTC

This is not an "it's the user's fault" or "it's never the user's fault" argument. There's not "fault" here, there is responsibility. There's an implicit social contract in computing, in navigating change that matters when we are using the tools we rely on. Change is an _accessibility problem_ that demands assistive technologies to navigate, and building that tech is the responsibility of the developer. "We put a 2nd floor on your house", great! "Climb a rope to get there", excuse me what.

Replies (4)

@mhoye@mastodon.social 2025-11-05 18:31

The biggest own-goal I've ever experienced in this space was Windows 8. Extremely Late Hot Take: Metro was Actually Pretty Good. But the thing they bungled, hard, was making the Win8 changes _accessible_. If you didn't see the first-run "swipe from off the screen" training montage, all the reflexes you might have from a phone or iPad were all 100% wrong and did nothing. The first time I sat down in front of one of them it took me an hour to figure out how to log in at all.

Open ##2597317
@hyc@mastodon.social 2025-11-05 20:37

@mhoye@mastodon.social > "We put a 2nd floor on your house", great! "Climb a rope to get there", excuse me what. oh, I see you've been to my attic

Open ##2597384
@ancoghlan@mastodon.social 2025-11-06 01:17

@mhoye@mastodon.social "Oh, and we sealed all the doors and windows on the ground floor. You have a second floor now, why would you want to keep using the ground floor?"

Open ##2597386
@tbortels@infosec.exchange 2025-11-06 15:58

@mhoye@mastodon.social Recognizing the fundamental difference between fault and responsibility is deep wisdom a lot of people don't get. Good thread.

Open ##2597387