So many companies ask people with disabilities to give up some of the basic human rights that most people take for granted. As a blind person, I feel I should still have the right to keep my personal life private, but this is harder than you would think. I understand that even writing this blog might be sharing more than some people would consider appropriate. I only share what I do in hopes that others will learn and be able to do better in the future.
Should You Detect Assistive Technology?
For years, I have been saying that detecting the use of access technology, in apps and on websites, violates a person’s right to keep their disability information private. Consider that if a person has a disability that is not out there for everyone to know about, having an application or website that detects assistive technology makes it so that they are having to let someone know things about their disability. How would you feel if to be able to shop in a store, your medical information was how you got in through the door? In the case of using techniques like detecting the use of access technology, this is what happens. If an app does something specifically to make itself more accessible only because access technology is running, this means that the access technology user is now shunted off to a different and many times lesser part of the store. In some extreme cases, the disabled person may not even be aware that there is a lot missing.
Some Examples of How This Can Go Wrong
Many years ago, website developers thought that they had to create text-only versions of a site so that a screen reader could access it. Luckily, fewer developers use this workaround anymore. You might ask, what is wrong with this technique? The biggest problem with having different versions of the same content is that it is impossible to maintain equivalent services.
I remember being asked to review a library’s site, and many of the services the library offered were not even on the alternative version of the site. In the case of this site, some of the services that were fundamental to using a library were only available to non-disabled people. As a blind person, if I used the text-only version of the site, I would not have access to the reference desk. The most offensive part of it was that I was not even able to see the book clubs and did not know that the library even had book clubs.
Another example was that a major chain of stores insisted that the only way for a blind person to shop on their website was a text-only version. Well, the text-only version did not only limit images but also never had information about sales and or coupons. The blind person using a screen reader would always pay full price. This was extremely bad as it meant some blind people would not be able to buy items and save money while doing so.
How Technology Makes People with Disabilities Share Private Information
I can’t tell you how many people think it’s OK to give up some of their privacy for better service. I often find myself arguing with some of my most technically savvy friends when they tell me that they take actions that I feel violate their fundamental right to privacy. Think about a blind person that uses one of the remote sighted assistant apps to do basic tasks like reading mail. Now take that a little farther and think about what might be in that mail. Maybe it’s a health test result. Perhaps it’s a credit card statement. Where is the line drawn? How much information is too much to share? I hear so many blind people tell me they use one of these services for things like taxes, healthcare, and so much more. I always cringe when I this. Yes, I am speaking from a place of privilege. I have a spouse that I can get to read these things for me. I also pay a very trusted person to read my more important documents and mail. But I still wonder how much data these remote sighted assistant tools store about their customers and how safe that data is. Some of these tools have told their users about sharing their data, but others have not. There are so many data breaches nowadays that I doubt a small company that sells remote sighted assistants will have top security and privacy in place.
How Long Before The Next Hacker Goes After People With Disabilities?
When we think about technology, we also have to consider privacy. How often do we hear about companies X, Y, or Z getting access to information that they should not have? Now think about it from a different perspective: What if sharing that information was the only way you could use that technology? In my last post about why apps are not the best way to access tech, I talked about many reasons why this was not a good idea. What I did not mention is that when using an app to do a simple task like laundry, the user is now sending information to the mother ship every time they open the app. Why is this a bad idea, you ask. Who cares when I do laundry? Well, what about detergent manufacturers? They might know exactly when to show an ad about buying detergent. If you often wash delicate fabrics, clothing stores may target advertisements for silks and lace to you. You say, but the laundry company is who knows this information. Well, sadly, they don’t keep this to themselves. The saying that you are the product is truer for disabled people than most. If we can’t use the laundry without the app, then we build a bigger data set on us that can be sold. I find this to be a sad statement and wish it were not so.
More Reasons to Not Detect Access Tech
I will still advocate for not trying to detect access technology and will keep doing so for as long as I can. My choices, though, are getting limited. My phone broadcasts to any app I use that a screen reader is running. My browser is telling any website I visit information about the way I browse that adds up to me using a screen reader. The web-based overlay tools that have caused so much controversy over the last 10 or so years have truly shown how this information can lead to many problems. I have had websites using these overlays literally block me because they detected a screen reader and tried to get me to stop using my screen reader so they could help. Sadly, they were not able to do half the things I could with a screen reader, so all they accomplished was frustrating me and making me not even want to do business with the company that used the overlay. The other major problem is that these overlay companies start tracking where and how much a user goes around the World Wide Web. This was to “help me,” but all it did was frustrated and offend me. Why should the restaurant I go to on Monday know which one I go to on Tuesday? They should not know that. But if both of them have one of these overlays, that information is now stored somewhere on the overlay companies’ servers. It is then sold to the highest bidder that wants to know if I prefer Italian or Mexican food when it’s trying to upsell me. And all this in the name of accessibility. I will talk more about these overlays in my next post, so stay tuned.
More About Apps
My last post talked about why apps are not the answer for accessibility, but I missed a very important point. When I use connected devices like my Instant Pot, all the data about how I cook and when is being stored somewhere that I can’t take it back from. You might say the Instant Pot does not know what you’re cooking, but it does try to get you to use their recipes, and then it can tell what you’re doing.
Summary
The use of access technology often compromises privacy for disabled individuals. Detecting such technology can reveal personal health information, limit access to services, and result in data being sold to third parties. Text-only versions of websites and apps that require personal information for functionality are inadequate solutions. Advocacy is needed to protect the privacy rights of disabled people while ensuring equal access to technology and services.