Guy says that “Everyone is different. Everyone has different needs and preferences. It’s very hard to build a one-size-fits-all design.”
Thanks to Fable for sponsoring the transcript for this episode.
Transcript
Nic
Hi, I’m Nic Steenhout. And you’re listening to the accessibility rules soundbite, a series of short podcasts where disabled people explain their impairments and what barriers they encounter on the web. Just a reminder, I have transcripts available for all episodes at the time of publication from the website at https://a11yrules.com. This is the time to thank Fable, our sponsor for the show. Fable is a leading accessibility platform powered by disabled people. They move organizations from worrying about compliance to building incredible and accessible user experiences. And they do that through product testing and custom courses. You can learn more about how Fable can work for your team at https://makeitfable.com/nic. Today I’m talking with Guy Kisel. Hey, Guy, how are ya?
Guy
Hi, I’m pretty doing pretty well.
Nic
Good. We’ve been talking a lot in the background about all kinds of stuff that’s super fascinating. But obviously, this is my soundbite. So we’re not going to be able to cover everything all the things. Let’s start with what’s your disability or your impairment that you want to talk about today?
Guy
Oh, good question. Yeah, I have some RSI issues in my hands. Basically, just from overuse over the years of playing a lot of video games and spending a lot of time on the computer and so on. Largely like tendinitis in my wrist and my hands and and then yeah, the sensory issues, I’ve always been extremely sensitive, and had issues with, like sensory processing. And that includes, you know, being extremely sensitive to smells, and getting easily overwhelmed and sounds and like feelings and textures and all these things. And yeah, it does sometimes, you know, cause issues with technology or with gaming or stuff like that. On that note, to be clear, I work in the games industry, but I’m only here to represent myself and my own, like perspectives and opinions and not have any sort of official representative
Nic
that that’s totally fair. Now, being very sensitive to smells, I guess, is not a big problem using computers games, we haven’t yet gotten to smell-o-vision. And I think I’m happy about that. But how does does this sensory overload? How does that translate in either gaming or using the web or working digitally?
Guy
Yeah, good question. I’m also very grateful that we have not yet invented smell-o-vision. Even you know, virtual reality doesn’t seem to have that yet. And for me, at least, I’m thankful for that. It doesn’t always actually have an effect. You know, in a lot of cases, Everything’s just fine. But the sort of things that can happen are, it’s often like, related to hearing things. So I’m not, I’m not deaf or hearing impaired in any way that I’m aware of. I’m actually very sensitive to sounds. But what that can result in is that I have trouble filtering out… sounds. So like, as an example, if I’m in a crowded room, and there’s a lot of conversations going on, it can be really hard to pick out the conversation I’m trying to participate in. And so what can happen in, you know, online situations, is, if you’re in a call with people, and there’s a lot of background noise coming through their microphone, it can be like nearly impossible to understand them, which I know everybody, or a lot of people probably experienced this as frustrating or difficult. But it can be get, like, especially bad. Or if there’s high pitched sounds like feedback, or especially for whatever reason, I’m super sensitive to like whistling. But, you know, if you suddenly have headphones on, you suddenly hear somebody whistling. It’s almost like it’s being projected directly into your brain. It can be kind of difficult to cope with.
Nic
So you’re not talking about just a bit of a frustration or annoyance. You really are talking about these kinds of sounds, wreck your brain in some way.
Guy
Yeah, it can lead to just all like thinking or processing or anything. You know, trying to actually be a person just stops and for as long as as you know, whistling are there. high pitched noises are going on. I’m just desperately trying to survive it or get past it. And then you know, if that goes away, then try to resume a normal train of thought or conversation or something. It takes a while to like, collect myself. Of course, you know, this varies, it’s like, if I’m really tired, this can be a lot worse than if I’m like, in good spirits or so on.
Nic
Yeah, but isn’t that the thing about accessibility, though that situation vary, situations vary for individual depending on time of day, day of week or period of the year. But that doesn’t mean that because it’s not always the same. It’s any less important, does it?
Guy
Oh, yeah, for sure. I agree. I’m definitely not like an expert on accessibility or anything. I’m just, from this point of view, survive, as a normal user, try my best to get through the day and do the things I want to do. But yeah, I agree with you that it shouldn’t, it shouldn’t matter that much. I guess I just add that for like, context or color.
Nic
Fair enough! Guy, if you had a message for designers, or developers around web accessibility, or digital accessibility or, or things like that, what what would you want them to remember about either disability, inclusion, or accessibility?
Guy
I mean, I think part of it is just that everyone’s different. Everyone has different needs, and preferences, and so on. And it’s very hard to do like a one size fits all design. So I, I always really appreciate any software tools or websites that have controls and settings basically, like, let me toggle on and off different sound effects, or turn on and off, sound entirely or music entirely. Often I really liked when things default to not having sound and then have you like opt into sound or something like that. Right? I’ve often experienced websites that you know, you go to a website to read some documentation about a product and a little chat window pops up in the bottom right with like a cloud high pitch, dinging noise, asking if you want to check with Representative and like, I really appreciate the the effort to provide good service and support. But it’s also often like very startling. And the first thing I want to do after after one of those things pops up is just like closed the website and never go back.
Nic
Yeah, so they’re trying to be helpful, but in fact, they are pushing customers away.
Guy
Yeah, it can happen. And you know, it’s one of those tricky things because it’s clearly well intentioned, but intentions aren’t always enough. Yeah,
Nic
yeah. I like that intentions aren’t always enough. Guy. Thank you very much for sharing your your thoughts and experiences with me and we’ll see you around on the web.
Guy
Sounds good. Thanks for having me on.
Nic
Cheers.