A friend just pointed out:
"ADHD creates impulse control issues and, consequently, advertising takes advantage of a disability. Ergo, ad blockers are assistive devices and interfering with their operation for commercial gain constitutes a willful violation of the ADA."
Let’s do this.
@erinaceus @tek And only in few areas laws about mandatory accessibility at all. And even those often weak.
For example public transportation ought to be accessible by the beginning of 2022. But... Big loopholes.
@itsmeholland @project1enigma @erinaceus @tek
Only after I moved to Canada did I realize that the ADA, lacking as it is in enforcement etc, really is remarkable and uncommon
I was shocked to see the lack of basic disability requirements here
Pretty much the accessibility here is stuff that’s done to be in line with US models
I expected more
Direct action gets the goods
Interesting comparison with how the #disability rights movement in Canada was subverted by celebrity fundraising
@itsmeholland @project1enigma @erinaceus @tek The movement has roots much deeper than that—no shade to the activists in 1990, but I remember 1973 when for the first time in the US, discrimination against the disabled was addressed in law.
(I remember because our new high school, for the first time, featured accessible bathrooms—unbelievably even that was controversial.)
https://dredf.org/about-us/publications/the-history-of-the-ada/
The history of the ADA did not begin on July 26, 1990 at the signing ceremony at the White House. It did not begin in 1988 when the first ADA was introduced in Congress.The ADA story began a long time ago in cities and towns throughout the United States when people with disabilities began to challenge societal barriers...
@itsmeholland @project1enigma @erinaceus @tek
My point being, this has been a long struggle.
As the grandmother of a medically-complex child with communication delays, I have every reason to understand how much more there is to do.
@megmuttonhead @project1enigma @erinaceus @tek of course. I only meant to emphasize that it took extreme measures before the disability law that many Americans think of as the pinnacle of such protections was finally able to be passed. It should't have taken all that.
& of course its not to say there are no politically minded disabled folks in western Europe. But for some reason it still seems there's no larger cohesive movement there yet to spur the political will for similar protections.
I find I can't function with an ad in my face, I will either find a way to get rid of it or I will close the web site.
@darwinwoodka @tek Yes I am like that too. I wrote my own ad blocker in 1999 (Ad Extinguisher) because I was about ready to quit the web. One of its main features was to "defang" looped GIFs so they only play once. Blinking GIFs were one of the main plagues at the time.
Now whenever I see people using an unprotected browser I think, how do you use that all day?
I like the cut of your friend's jib.
There are entire white papers on how to worsen people's impulse control to make impulse buys easier (wear them down) that acknowledge people without certain conditions are likely to never fall prey to these tactics, but those with them will so the cost is so low that folks with impaired impulse control make it completely worth it.
When trying to find a job after finishing my math degree the second category of jobs that were an immediate hard rejection (after building weapons) was jobs to design algorithms to utilize psychology research on gambling addiction and impulse control to keep people hooked without them realizing.
They didn't put it in those words of course - but the weapons design jobs also tried to hide what I would be doing too.
@tek @deilann
You remind me of a time oldest bro Stan cracked up the house. Circa 1970s, fam @ cabin watching Bob Newhart on small B&W TV.
Ad Jingle: “DOW… lets you do great things.” aimed at college age viewers.
Stan: “Sure, then 6 months later they re-assign you to working on the Death Gel.”
A tween @ the time. We started the cynicism early in our family.
@tek yes!!
The only reason to get “””smart glasses””” if they ever show up would be to run adblock irl. I’d be up for that.
@maxwainwright @tek I've heard of a low tech solution here...
Many ads on the street today (depending on the city) are displayed on monitors, & we can manufacture glasses with filters which blacks out TV screens from your vision!
@tek Now that we’re talking about this: I’m sure online ads deployed in certain ways (at minimum) make websites less accessible for people with severe dyslexia, motor issues, vision problems, and certain cognitive impairments.
Although this gets tricky because only public sector websites are covered by Section 508 of the ADA which mandates they be accessible for people with many types of disabilities. Section 508 does not cover private sector/corporate websites.
Not just that. :D
Since Google starting gathering data from the machines that people were using to display the adverts. This includes the OS versioning, and, update status.
Bad actors then use the market segmentation to find vulnerable machines, so only unpatched machines would have the malicious adverts displayed.
The adverts do a re-direct to another website that performs an automatic "drive-by" installation of malware.
@RubyJones There is a problem with animation capturing the eye when you are trying to read. Normally you can just read, without consciously controlling your eyes. But if there is a blinking ad, it will capture your visual focus at the end of every line unless you actively override that. Doing so is tiring.
I used to put a Notepad over the ad or move the window to put the ad off the edge of the screen. I don't even try to browse on a phone.
I wonder if it would be against UK and EU domestic equality/accessibility laws too?
@tek Arguing adblockers are an assistive device may be a hard sell; they could just argue that adblockers themselves aren’t illegal, so a site that refuses to load content because it sees you have an adblocker is akin to a private business turning you away at the door because you wear sneakers.
You may have better luck with arguing that flashing/moving, bright images are negatively affecting the quality of life/endangering people with disabilities for ads in public areas.
@tek I'm the opposite. I have "poster blindness" for ads, especially if they appear in the same position all the time. I do get annoyed at popups, but I quickly dispense with them and charge ahead with whatever I'm maniacally researching.
As for TV/streaming, I look as though I'm watching the ads, but I'm actually looking "through" them, daydreaming. Most of the time, I can't tell you what I've just seen, or what is being advertised. I'm a nightmare for marketers. :D
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