#7 How a well-known website lost trust of their community

Dear Friends,

Something important took space in my mind during the past week: web accessibility. In a moment when people spend more time at home and need to be and feel connected, we realise what a privilege it is to have a good internet connection. Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web, made it clearer than ever: access to the internet should be a universal right. But it doesn’t stop there: websites need to be accessible to everyone, regardless of disability. It seems surreal to have to say this in 2020, but a website designed with accessibility in mind benefits everyone.

Last month, the well-know among knitters and crocheters website Ravelry underwent a redesign of the interface. It was a surprise for everyone, especially for the ones that started to experience physical issues while or after browsing it. At the same time, screen reader software stopped working, effectively blocking a group of people from accessing the site. I wrote a blog post about this detailing what happened and explaining what are the best practices, from a UX Design point of view. You’ll also find some useful articles if you’re interested in knowing more.

In the meantime, Ravelry didn’t fix the accessibility issues. Moreover, the founders and team closed or made private their social media accounts, and closed the threads about the redesign on the forum: not a good sign of the things to come. It’s up to us, designers and developers, to build accessible websites. It’s up to all of us to call out companies that don’t do it. It’s our responsibility to make the web accessible, usable and inclusive.

🔗 Read the blog post