ThePickards
standards, accessibility, and ranting and general stuff by the web chemist

A phrase you might have come across, if you’ve looked into disability issues at all, particularly as they relate to the web, or you’ve looked at the topic of web accessibility is people who are sometimes termed internet disabled.
Now this isn’t an official term (at least, so far as I know), but from the contexts […]

Read: Being Internet Disabled »

Yes, as my piscine chum the Goldfish has reminded me, we’re getting close to Blogging Against Disablism Day 2008. Or BADD 2008, if you want to be as cool as … I dunno … New Kids On The Block, or MC Hammer or suchlike.
If you’d like to take part in Blogging Against Disablism 2008, then […]

Read: Blogging Against Disablism Preview »

Many thanks to the RNIB WAC blog for this spot…
This is an ad for Pepsi, it’s made by deaf members of the PepsiCo workforce (part of a group called enAble). Pepsi showed this during a commercial break at the Superbowl.

And to me, they’ve not done this because the advert is written by a disability […]

Read: Bob’s House »

I think that a lot of non-disabled people are frightened by the language of disability. They’re worried about saying the wrong thing: using the term “handicapped” rather than “person with a disability”, worrying whether they will cause offense if they say “see you later” to a blind person and so on.
For the most part (while […]

Read: Bloopers aren’t disablism; brutality is »

Okay, I know this report came out a little while ago, but I’ve been too busy with other stuff (working with the PSWMG to contribute to an accessibility supplement for SOCITM’s Better Connected report, amongst other things) and it’s been a while since I’ve had the opportunity to consider accessibility issues here.
So now I’m going […]

Read: Antisocial Networking »

Or to put another way “what century are we in again?”
I accept that I probably know more about disability rights than most of my non-disabled friends, because of my interest in web accessibility, my passion for equality of opportunity (including as it relates to race, gender, sexual preference and the like), but even so, I […]

Read: Disability Discrimination »

This is going to be somewhat of a long post about accessibility, about a lawsuit that relates to accessibility, and to the attitudes of people towards disability. It’s therefore going to touch on legal matters and technical matters, but mainly it’s going to be around the arguments around different attitudes towards accessibility/disability issues and the […]

Read: Accessibility vs the Free Market: Attitudes to Target »

Sometimes being someone who is committed to web accessibility feels like it’s not a good thing.
You get the feeling people feel you’re some kind of zealot (even if you aren’t); you get the feeling that other people think that when you raise the issue of accessibility you’re being awkward or causing problems, that it’s […]

Read: Accessibility: Making it all worthwhile »

Firstly, what gives me the right to propound my proposed public sector guidelines to you all? What makes me think I know more about accessibility than the WAI or the UK Cabinet Office?
Nothing.
What I do have is considerable experience and knowledge in the field of accessibility, and considerable experience and knowledge of working in the […]

Read: Proposed Public Sector Web Accessibility Guidelines »

I’m a believer in equality. I believe in equality of opportunity, although to be that’s a fancy way of saying I believe in fairness. Which is why I’ve produced a set of posts on the theme of equality, rambling through my beliefs and experiences as regards equalities and politics, sexism, sexuality, racism and disability. A […]

Read: Equality Part 5: Spasticus Autisticus »