"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:
"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.
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.
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
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
(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.
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?