Accessible 2022: Promoting assistive tech and an accessibility-driven culture

Accessible is a newsletter covering all things assistive tech. Approximately once per month, we release a public database of products based on reader requests. Accessible does not accept funding from any companies covered in order to showcase the opinions of product users faithfully.

Hello lovely readers,

This week’s format is a bit different. I want to discuss why I started Accessible, my goals for it, and how we’ve reached them so far, as well as get your input for the year moving forward. 

Please take one minute (actually one minute) to fill out this survey in order to contribute to next year’s goals.

With that out of the way, let’s get into where Accessible started and where it is headed!

Where it started

I published my first Accessible post in mid-August of this year. It was originally a place to get a feel for non-academic writing, find my voice, and try to share my passion with some of the world. 

But a picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s a chart laying out the major achievements since then:

Out of these accomplishments made, here are my favorite over the last five months:

• Two databases were created: sensory chews & weighted products. People now can sort through these databases rather than search through multiple websites to find quality accessibility products.

• Accessible gained a wide variety of readers. People in the disability community, caregivers and parents, teachers and social workers, government officials, tech creators, PR firms, and VCs all subscribe to Accessible. Some people check multiple boxes. This gives me a lot of hope that people are excited and on board with accessibility— they just need some direction to make it happen and/or be willing to share their ideas.

• Accessible is surrounded by good people and lots of support. We have a solid group of humans who do great work and even more people who support us—thanks for the love.

• Data was scraped, analyzed, and visualized on the number of people making less than minimum wage in the United States. Yes, this does exist—most people aren’t aware. The data is being used in a Minnesota legislative reform push happening now, regarding Minnesota Employed People with Disabilities. A photo of one public visualization I created is below, and you can interact with it here.

2022

In 2022, promoting assistive tech and an accessibility-driven culture is still the goal—as it likely always will be. However, I have some more specific goals. Now that Accessible has an editor and an artist who are slaying it, I can focus on some more technical aspects. These are my goals for this year for Accessible:

• Create an accessible website that meets or exceeds WCAG standards

• Feature community members by guest writing or by interviewing them, whatever they are most comfortable with

• Receive and implement feedback from Accessible’s readers

• Publish on a regular schedule—this will be once per week, but not necessarily the same format you’ve been seeing.

Your input

I started Accessible to promote assistive tech and an accessibility-driven culture. This change doesn’t happen alone. I want to hear from Accessible’s readers on how we can make Accessible, well, more accessible…as well as what you’d like to see in 2022 and beyond.

With everyone’s input, we can create a place to share great ideas, make good ideas better, and get real input on how assistive tech can improve our daily lives.

Please take a minute to fill out the survey to give me a bit of feedback on accessibility standards and goals for next year.

Much love,

Keeri