Blog
Posts on accessibility, research, travel, and technology, written from my experience with low vision.
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My Needs are Not "Special"
Using my needs as examples, like figures that stay sharp when I zoom and caption sizes I can adjust, I explain why none of them are extras. I also look at how the "special needs" framing leads institutions to treat accessibility as an optional add-on.
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Why I Want Accessibility Options On by Default
I reflect on the sentiment towards the "Navigation Assist" and visual guides in the recently released Marvel's Wolverine to show how on-by-defaults affect whether players discover useful assistive options. Drawing on my own experience with text-to-speech, I suggest live previews, searchable settings, and notes from disabled playtesters, as improvements to game setting menus.
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A Label Is Not a Priority
GitHub's new default label makes accessibility issues easier to find, but it does not decide who fixes them or when. It can also result in accessibility issues more easily deferred for "later". I look at research on how accessibility work gets deferred and suggest five practices, like naming an owner and pairing the label with severity.
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Google Changed Their Icons Again... And They are Still Not Accessible
Google's new icons almost certainly meet WCAG contrast requirements, but Calendar and Docs still look alike to me at a glance. I explain why glanceability matters with low vision, redesign both icons to be more glanceable in Google's style, and suggest involving low-vision people in design from the start.
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Travel Japan: Plum Blossom Festival and BLV Accessibility
I describe my experience at Hanegi Park's plum festival and accessibility in Japan. The yellow braille blocks in Japan and audio orientation guidance around landmarks are helpful, while the small and distant signs at food stalls were difficult to read. I also describe a taiko performance that is fun both visually and non-visually.
