The tech news story that goes undercovered – accessibility products

Monica Chin of The Verge writes about why accessibility products are undercovered in technological innovation journalism.

Chin writes, “Around 25 p.c of US grownups have a incapacity, but demanding and centralized accessibility information is nevertheless tough to discover for even the most important tech releases. I requested accessibility-centered writers throughout the tech and gaming space how the media market can greater address assistive technology, and the remedy, it turns out, is that it is a bit way too early to be inquiring that question. The greatest stores aren’t continually masking it, many of the writers felt. They should really start off accomplishing so.

“In reporting this piece, I set out to speak to the reporters on personnel at big tech publications who largely deal with assistive technological innovation. I quite speedily uncovered that there are not a lot of.

“Over the previous 10 years or so, ‘accessibility tech’ — broadly, gadgets, application, and options customized to disabled users — has gradually grow to be a general public precedence for substantial tech providers. Even extra not long ago, it is become regular for firms like Apple and Google to contain an ‘accessibility’ section in their conferences and keynotes. Alt text and audio descriptions have turn into an expectation across the internet, and blockbuster online games are shipping with sprawling accessibility menus. Microsoft opened a 2,000-square-foot lab dedicated to inclusive devices this year. There is an audience for such technological innovation, or at minimum the world’s largest businesses are betting that there is.

“Still, accessibility stories are overwhelmingly assigned to freelancers, or to workers writers whose main defeat is a thing else.”

Read through far more in this article.