Hi Gary,

I don't disagree with you, but there are a few things to consider, and BTW I have a bit of a history in the world of accesibility, and have 2 conditions myself that if not considered in UX design can cause me to experiece barriers.

I lead digital accessibility for the BBC for over 16 years (first large content organisation to implement open accessibility standards at scale), been a head of user experience design there too for about 10 and have lead projects like the world's first accessible VOD service (BBC iPlayer), the first mobile accessibility guidelines (4 years ahead of W3C), created the first TV platform to be able to be driven by a single switche and the first built-in magnifier/high contrast mode/reduced movement mode for a TV platform (on the YouView platform in 2009). I'm also an expert in font accessibility, campion user experience (was the editor for the BBC's subtitle guidelines for a number of years), etc. I know my stuff.

But I have also come from a privalidged place of an organisation that has an 80 year old accessibility programme, creating VI accessible wirelesses in the 1930s, launching the first in-vision signing service for TV in the 1950s, the first national closed caption service in the 1970s and the first broadcast product systems for AD in the 90s.

I'm being mindful that lots of organisations do not have the inclusive maturity of the BBC. They are run by people who did not grow up living on site at a "special" school in the 1970s like I did, and subsequently had the experiences I have had. They are just waking up to change, and we need to get them to take their first steps and then encourage them to take more. What I am suggesting is not an answer, but I want to discourage them from expecting disabled people to give their expert advice for free, for them to start talking, engaging and understanding, and to think about a path to change, because there are all sorts of issues such as skills, empathy, research methodologies, confidence, ux practices etc. they need to get grow to make a permanent change.

I have been through this with the BBC, and we did use in-house built stop-gap technologies to deal with issues around transition and legacy, but these were mayflies whilst we created more permanent solutios, such as accessible design and templating systems, the first corporate accessibility champions network, accessibility team and assistive technology teams staffed mostly by disabled people etc.

You have the moral high ground, but you need to give people a path because there is no switch that suddenly makes things accessible properly overnight...

Which is the claims made by some overlay providers. It is an unreasonable marketing essage and expectation. If you deman permanent change now, and there is only one servie that purports to provide that, you can see why people make that mistake.

Even if an organisation chooses an overlay they are at least recognising there is a problem and that they need to change, which is a good first step, but it is only a step.

Your politics are right, but all good lobbyists know that idealism has to be balanced out with pragmatism for anything to change, and what I am asking for is for a first step. Meet "some people" and pay them because they have expertise in the barriers they face. Then build upon that.

Read some of my other articles and you'll realise that this is not about "us vs them" but about finding an opportunity to get people together.