Good evening!
Autumn is now upon us, and as someone who hates the hotter, sweatier months of summer, I say bring on the pumpkins, fallen leaves and furry coats.
Oh, and bring on the newsletter!
In tonight's issue:
Super Follows are finally here, but just how good is it?
You're probably wondering what #Spectrum10K is about...
The nonsensical debate over 'Wokeo and Juliet' and trigger warnings
And more!
Just keep on scrolling...
🗞️ Read A11y 'bout it!
What is the Spectrum 10K DNA study into autism? — www.indy100.com
You may have seen the hashtag #StopSpectrum10K doing the rounds on Twitter, and/or the mention of the Spectrum 10K study. In short, it's a study looking to collect autistic people's DNA to improve their "wellbeing", and activists are rightly concerned.
Twitter could soon be adding GoFundMe to its Tip Jar feature — twitter.com
As I say on Twitter itself (how self-referential!), we see a lot of disabled folk using GoFundMe to raise money for specialist equipment such as wheelchairs. They shouldn't have to do this, of course, but Twitter integrating GoFundMe into the Tip Jar is an excellent move which will benefit disabled people, I'm sure.
The UK Government is looking for access ambassadors, but won't be paying them — twitter.com
As if the Work and Pensions Secretary - head of a department which doesn't have the best track record when it comes to supporting disabled people - attending the Paralympics wasn't enough, an advert's been put out for unpaid advisory roles to the Government on accessibility. It should go without saying, but if people are offering up their lived experiences and advice, pay them.
👤 Super Follows are here...
Twitter's paid follower tool is finally here on a few select accounts, though of course, many disabled people won't be able to reap the rewards, given that there's a 10k follower requirement to apply for Super Follows.
We've touched on this before in a previous issue of The All-Inclusive Newsletter, but there's certainly ways in which Super Follows can be useful to disabled creators. Those with a platform which they use to share disability awareness tips may well consider paywalling content behind Super Follows, or post exclusive resources on there, too before they go live to a wider audience. There's certainly a few ways in which disabled accounts can have a play around with this tool, and such a model is certainly appealing at the moment - not least when one thinks of the recent drama around OnlyFans, by which disabled users were no doubt affected as well...
The only barrier, however, is the follow count requirement. First it was the 100k follower limit for verification for activists, now it's 10k to be able to pursue a new revenue stream.
Twitter seriously needs to make some urgent changes.
⚠️ Global warnings
Not long after I sent out the previous issue of The All-Inclusive Newsletter, I learned that the wonderful Shakespeare's Globe in London was getting a lot of stick for adding trigger warnings to its production of Romeo and Juliet. Seeing as this newsletter explores any intersection between accessibility, social media and technology - and this concerns the first two - I wanted to write a little more about why these warnings are important, and why you should include them in your social media content, if you aren't already.
Fundamentally, it isn't being "woke" or a "snowflake" to warn when a show touches upon sensitive themes, more an arts organisation carrying out its duty of care to its audiences. As I write in an opinion piece on the whole debacle, to argue against trigger warnings is to argue that neurodivergent, disabled and vulnerable people should either enter these performances and deal with whatever reaction they may have to it; or not watch it all, even though a simple warning can be enough for some people to then attend the show.
Both stances, by the way, are ableist.
And in addition to reading my post expanding on this some more, I'd suggest checking out the brilliant Jess Thom of TourettesHero, who also discussed this issue far more succinctly than I did.
🗣 Voice Effects: Privacy vs Accessibility?
In a long-overdue return to Twitter Spaces (which now has an improved captions feature, I have to say), I decided to test out their new Voice Effects tool, to see just how accessible it is while still offering anonymity for those who may not feel comfortable speaking in their own voice.
To repeat something I said in the Space itself: it's hell.
Some of the sounds are completely unnecessary (please tell me why I would need to sound like a bee or on helium whilst in a Space), while others offer reverb or echo to the point that it's nothing but white noise.
Oh, and for many, the captions struggle to pick up what you're saying, missing out whole sentences. Gone are the paragraphs of text and instead, lines of captions are just one line only. A lot of these effects, I was told, are painful for autistic and neurodivergent folk too.
Twitter soon tweaked its redesign after reports of eye strain, so when will it make the right move and axe this pathetic feature?
And to be clear, yes, anonymity is important, but this definitely isn't the way to go about it, and other solutions were suggested during my Twitter Space last week, including our own custom sliders, rather than having to deal with Twitter's presets.
Then again, it's been revealed that Twitter may soon allow people to join a Twitter Space without being logged in, which seems like a much more convenient workaround, no?
I'll be writing a post on Twitter's voice effects on my website soon, but in the meantime, you can read what people had to say during my Space over on Twitter.
👋🏻 See you on 17 September!
Thanks for reading! I'm off to have a nap. Don't forget that you can continue the conversation with me over on Twitter, where you can also tip me on CashApp, to help me continue to send these little emails into your inbox.
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Until next time, have a good weekend!
Liam