Anon OpinJan 31
Not everyone can afford a smartphone. Stop making it the primary, and sometimes the only, interface for day to day services. It's like when companies move their customer facing information onto Discord. It's shit. Fucking stop it.
Show threadC++ Wage Slave

@anon_opin

Yes!

And it's not just money. Imagine trying to use a smartphone if you had Parkinson's, or age-related macular degeneration, or mild cognitive impairment. Imagine using one if you lived with an abusive partner who demanded your Pin and punished anything he saw and didn't like. Imagine needing to get rid of your smartphone to help beat your online gambling addiction, and then finding you were locked out of modern society.

We think too easily of new and shiny things, and we forget the people who don't fit the mould, who get left to fend for themselves.

Jan 31 at 2:16pmWeb
Show threadmattgJan 31
@CppGuy @anon_opin especially aggravating when governments do it.
Show threadAdvanced Persistent TeapotJan 31
@CppGuy @anon_opin 100%. If your service is online, it should be possible to conduct through a website with an app as an *option*. And if the website is harder to use then you are Doing It Wrong.
Show threadFriekeJan 31
@CppGuy this!
E.g. Mother in law is internet savvy but due to shaking rheumatoid hands she has the hardest time operating a phone. She told she needed an hour of repeated tries to take a pic of her ID for banking purpose 😑
@anon_opin
Show threadMy camera shoots fascistsJan 31

@CppGuy @anon_opin

I know elderly people who are not phone savvy who should definitely not have smart phones, especially not attached to anything like banking. I have elderly family members who would be excluded from eating at a lot of restaurants these days because the only way to pay and order is by scanning a QR code. On principle, I walk out of these places and tell them why.

Anytime participating in the basic functions of life and society requires a smart phone, it creates an exclusionary system. (Note I said exclusionary and not discriminatory because the last time I said "discriminate" some pedant who probably works for a surveillance company took umbrage.)

Show threadStackyJan 31
@Mikal @CppGuy @anon_opin I feel like the QR menu is an ADA violation
Show threadGreg BellJan 31
@CppGuy @anon_opin @wendynather the same people who don't get this also think poor people are making "bad decisions" for spending money on a smartphone while poor.
Show threadMJ RayFeb 2

@CppGuy @sunflowerinrain @anon_opin a lot of people with Parkinson's can use smartphones better than you.

Some can't, so the general objection to smartphone-required services still holds, but let's not make ableist generalisations about it.