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What is the Responsibility of TECH to Handicapped People?

posted by martyb on Monday December 17 2018, @11:17PM   Printer-friendly
from the I-don't-see-what-you-did-there dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

PLEX, this last week pushed out changes to its ROKU users (I am one). That made using PLEX nearly impossible for some people. Light and Dark gray color palate. White text on light gray background, to the point of the PLEX 1/4 screen height logo and spinning-working throbber being lost on the background.

So war ensues... See Plex.tv support forums if you must.

My question to you all, "What is TECH's responsibility to the Handicapped?".

Should good TECH also have a backdoor method allowing those with usability issues to still use the product, when TECH changes directions? What about lifetime pre-paid services that are now unusable? Should there be immediate return of funds, so we can buy the second best solution (now the best choice for us)? Should any change be signed off by a third party auditor to insure continued usability?

So again, asked differently, what is TECH's moral responsibility?

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @01:03AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @01:03AM (#775670)

    When you lose customers you lose money. When you do it without good reason, you're a fucking moron.

    Plex seems to simply be following the rest of the sheep. Some idiots at Apple and Google decided that a flat UI with poor contrast and indistinguishable control elements was a good thing. Microsoft followed suit, adding their own gaudy touches. The sheep who develop applications for Windows, macOS, iOS and Android followed the leaders and the customers suffer the results.

    Unfortunately, the loss of money you refer to doesn't seem to be happening, else the flat-and-low-contrast-is-good design morons would have been given the boot by now and we'd be enjoying a reversion to usable UIs.

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  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:25AM (2 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:25AM (#775716) Homepage Journal

    It's happening. Most people are sheep and will take what is forced upon them but not all people.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:08PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:08PM (#775849)

      In my experience, software developers and devops people make the choices they do not for the users or their employer, but to enhance their resumes in anticipation of their next gig. A cool-lloking UI helps no one, but it does get you an interview with a cooler company, and hat's all that matters.

      I know in my case my career has suffered because I felt an obligation to be cost-effective and maintain existing codebases while my peers all jumped ship for the new shiny. If I had a dime for every bad new idea a coworker pushed through and leveraged into a cooler job elsewhere while I had to stay and clean up the mess...