The four pillars of accessibility overlay marketing

Fear, Guilt, Inspiration Porn, and Pay to Play

Authors note: Because of Medium’s refusal to address its accessibility issues for both authors and readers, I’ve moved my last three years of blogs to Substack. Please sign up there for notices of all new articles. Thank you for your continued readership and support.

Accessibility overlays are tools that detect and dynamically repair HTML accessibility issues in non-mobile environments. And what accessibility manager or product owner WOULDN’T want a solution that does that? Write an annual check and presto change-o your site is accessible, which means you don’t get sued. Unfortunately, that’s a lot too good to be true.

I have written numerous stories on what I feel are the negatives of using accessibility overlays, including discussions on:

1. Overlays not being a valid solution to *anyone’s* accessibility problems;
2. How overlays must have been developed by people who didn’t understand how people with disabilities engage with assistive technology;
3. Reminding people that getting sued while using an overlay is now a trend that almost 10 % of defendants in accessibility litigation are experiencing;
4. A recent ADA lawsuit settlement that…