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Blaming accessibility tools for what people do with them is reactionary (beehaw.org)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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People can do shitty things with accessibility. I could use alt-text on images to figure out who I could call slurs when I might not be able to otherwise.

That is not an argument against accessibility. People can potentially use their access to society to do harm, but not having access is guaranteed harm. It is not just guaranteed harm though, it is specifically systematic harm against disabled people on the basis of being disabled. Doing hierarchy because some members of another group might potentially choose to do hierarchy themselves does not reduce hierarchy overall, it makes it much worse.

Anybody who blames the accessibility tools themselves is a reactionary. This includes what people do with stuff like AI. No matter how much you try you will never go back to some ideal past. The AI is not going away. Your choice is simply whether or not you do hierarchy.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago (5 children)

This is the first I've heard of people blaming accessibility tools for anything.

You gave the example of alt text being used to hide slurs, but I'd be pretty confident this would be handled the same way as if they used them in the open. It would be brought to an admin or mods attention, they would confirm, and take appropriate action. Trolls regularly use slurs in the open so I don't see why this situation would be handled differently.

Are there other examples of accessibility tools being used for bad things?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Ebikes are an accessibility tool and are under constant attack from governments and the population at large.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

yeah the hatred of bikes is a big one, and so are cars. Lots of the "an"prim type on that front. Being able to walk places is cool, removing all cars is not.

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