-
We all implicitly absorb attitudes from the status quo. That includes attitudes that suggest tone policing people speaking up about parts of the status quo that aren't working for them. That includes accessibility.
-
Tone policing people expressing their frustration about needing better accessibility provision in order to be here, says more about you than them.
-
It mostly says that you don't want to hear about the problem.
-
When the time comes and you need people willing to harness the energy of frustration, and to express support for your needs in insistent (and yes, "loud") ways, in order to be heard by a status quo that doesn't want to hear about your needs - just remember that the same arguments will be used against you.
Eg: "Why are you causing well meaning leftist policy makers to burn out by banging on and on about trans rights/racism/the 'complicated' Middle East, etc. You need to understand that it's just not the right time to ask that they respond on equal marriage/abortion/puberty blockers being available for young people with gender dysphoria/refugees/climate change, or whatever."
-
I notice people think they are doing Staff a favour by tone policing people talking about accessibility. Have Staff personally asked you to do that? Or are you projecting your own desire to push away other people's insistent needs for inclusion, parity, etc onto Staff?
-
Because if it's you, rather than Staff, who can't stand to hear someone repeatedly saying: "dark mode stops me from having a migraine" or "alt text needs to be set up better", then you can mute/block the people asking for the things.
-
(With the understanding that you have muted/blocked the very same people who would potentially advocate insistently for you too, when your health fails, when you suffer illness, accidental injury, when you inevitably age and lose function, etc.)
-
Staff can decide for themselves if they listen or not. They can decide if they don't respond, or if they respond creatively (eg: share a roadmap specific to accessibility issues, maybe check in on that here once a month. Etc, etc.)
-
I haven't seen anyone here who is talking about accessibility cussing at Staff, threatening Staff physically, etc. Yet the perception is of a great and terrible injury done to Staff by people insistently saying: "This hasn't been done yet, and it affects my and other people's ability to remain here."
-
Some of you are projecting your own stuff onto this (previous threats you got doing customer service, which I am sorry to hear about, but this isn't that, weird racialised responses you have to minorities speaking up loudly, or whatever), and... It is actually people raising accessibility insistently because they appreciate being here enough to want to stay here. But also they get migraines from light mode, etc.
-
It's a sign that people value the site, otherwise no one would expose themselves to ignorant or bigoted flack by carrying the issue in public. They would just quietly leave.
-
And then what you get is a site where folks who are minoritised just quietly leave over time. And down the line you look around at the place and wonder why all the people of colour, why all the folks with disabilities, etc, why they aren't here, or why they want to go to "worse" platforms instead, lol.
