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Kathleen Sperling Profile picture
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5 Apr, 28 tweets, 7 min read
"Isn't this accessibility thing just a conspiracy among white supremacist types who are ticked off that Ravelry banned support of Trump to make the site a safe space?" - a thread:
See also, related:
Short answer: No.
Long answer: The people who are having accessibility problems...
...are demonstrably a completely different set of people...
...than those who left Ravelry because of the Trump ban.
The pro-accessibility folks...
...that I've seen...
...are in fact very supportive...
...of the Trump ban...
...and very much do not appreciate...
...being lumped into the same category...
...as Trump supporters.
Nor - which has, infuriatingly, happened - do they appreciate Trump supporters...
...thinking that because the pro-accessibility people have problems with Ravelry, that they can now somehow all be "on the same side".
In fact, it seems that some Trump supporters took cruel advantage of the problem to vent their spleen.
Rather, the pro-accessibility folks were in fact very big fans of Ravelry before the redesign was launched...
...and they were still big fans...
...(albeit irritated and sad ones)...
...after the redesign was launched...
...and the harmful effects were realized...
...because I think we all truly believed...
...that once we raised the accessibility issues...
...Ravelry would fix them.
However, after months of being ignored, suppressed, gaslit, and abused, this faith has, understandably, turned into anger and hurt. So these are not the same group of people At. All. wipinsanity.blogspot.com/p/ravelry-and-…
Aw, rats, I meant to tag the first tweet with #RavelryAccessibility.

Fin.
EPILOGUE: ADDITIONAL STUFF

This thread (warning: many #NuRav screenshots, so I'll summarize the highlights) comes from a non-stitchy webdev who decided to make a @ravelry account and see what the deal was with the UX and the code.
Oy, maybe y'think I should have added the above tweet onto the CORRECT THREAD? I'm a dork. Find the spot I meant to put it in here:

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More from @wipinsanity

Kathleen Sperling Profile picture
2 Apr
"Isn't #RavelryAccessibility fixed now? Because doesn't @ravelry know a lot about accessibility? And anyway, can't everyone just use a Stylish skin or something?" - a thread in multiple parts.

Short answer: No, no, and no.
Long answer (VERY long answer, actually - sorry!): #NuRav had a bunch of different problems when it first launched. Some of them were improved or fixed. But many - including the ones which cause physical harm - were not.
Some of these problems do resolve if you put one of the available third-party skins over top of them (although how newcomers to Ravelry will know they should do this I've no idea, and shouldn't a website work by itself without outside help?). But for many people, they don't.
Read 106 tweets
Kathleen Sperling Profile picture
8 Aug 20
A followup on this retweet of mine, about an open letter from designers to @ravelry.

This letter asked for four things:
1. Hire an outside consultant, with no personal investment in the outcome, for feedback on web accessibility. There was an emphasis here that inaccessible user surveys will not give them the information that such a consultant will.
2. Until the new version is KNOWN to no longer be a seizure risk, Classic Ravelry should be the default everywhere.

3. Any changes made to the new version to restore accessibility should be the default, rather than opt-in features.
Read 41 tweets
Kathleen Sperling Profile picture
24 Jul 20
On the topic of financial accessibility in knitting, here's a thread with some tricks for knitting on the cheap that I've picked up over the years, paired with links to higher-priced products from small businesses, for those who do have the money to spend. #NoShame #SkintVsMint
Stitch markers

SKINT: There are tons of things you can use, e.g.
- cross-sections of straws
- your kids' old Rainbow Loom elastics
- safety pins
- slip knots in scrap bits of yarn

MINT: Check out these hand-sculpted stitch markers: whitneymarieanderson.com/collections/st…
Yarn bobbins

SKINT:
- those little tabs that close up bread bags work great for thin yarns
- a Google search for 'make yarn butterfly' will yield tutorials for how to hand-wind good bobbins

MINT: I found these sweet animal-shaped wooden yarn bobbins: etsy.com/ca/listing/592…
Read 11 tweets
Kathleen Sperling Profile picture
18 Jul 20
:deep, fortifying breath:

(Because this thread is nervous-making for me to write.)

I want to talk cold, hard numbers about what #designers make, because it looks like there are some huge misconceptions floating around out there in the #knitting world.
There is currently a kerfuffle on IG, which has spilled over into Twitter, about the financial accessibility of yarn, because a knitter went to purchase the recommended yarn for the pattern she wanted to make and it was a ghastly high total.
Said knitter called for indie designers (in addition to all the other stuff the market currently expects them to load into their products) to recommend multiple yarns per pattern, customized to different price points, with photos of the finished project in each recommended yarn.
Read 25 tweets
Kathleen Sperling Profile picture
8 Jul 20
I'm so angry that @ravelry is still trying to sweep their #RavelryAccessibility mess under the rug. By all appearances, it looks like they're banking on the fact that the majority of their audience won't know or care why this is so problematic.
So, in an attempt to combat that dependency, I'm going to talk about why accessibility is important, and why you should care about it, even if you're not disabled, even if you don't think you'll ever be disabled, and even if you don't care much about the needs of the disabled.
I'll start by addressing why Ravelry has to even be accessible. I feel like a lot of folks might think "accessibility" is just about making sure blind people can read a website, and blind people don't knit, so what's the big deal?
Read 25 tweets
Kathleen Sperling Profile picture
27 Jun 20
@ravelry The more I read this, the worse it sounds. This is also a one-two gut punch to people with disabilities: framing the staff as hard-working heroes who want to make things accessible but it's rllyrlly tough...
@ravelry ...While simultaneously implying to the unaware, non-disabled audience that the complaints are unreasonable because look how amazing everyone else thinks the new site is.

I'll get more specific.
@ravelry Point one: "There is no magic bullet for designing websites to accommodate the wide range of vestibular disorders and visual needs"
Read 34 tweets

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