this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2023
355 points (100.0% liked)
Technology
37739 readers
637 users here now
A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.
Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.
Subcommunities on Beehaw:
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Yeah, the strategy makes sense, I wish them well, I'm not just optimistic about the results.
Neither am I. I think they are going about it the right way. I just think Reddit is intent on Digg-ing themselves a grave and I don't even think they understand the consequences of their actions. I'm sure they did some math on losing 3rd party app users, but I think they severely miscalculated on the moderator and accessibility fronts.
In the U.S., Section 504 requires web services to provide "individuals with disabilities an equal opportunity to participate." For now, Reddit has complied with that because third party applications using the free API constitute an equal opportunity (actually, it's a better opportunity - even better). However Reddit's website and first-party application do not work with screen readers. If Reddit goes through with this, I fully expect them to be sued. I wouldn't be too surprised if they weren't even aware of this, because the relevant communities have quietly used third-party access since ever.