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Google petitioned by Change.org
Transcript
9 June 2013
Roberta: A petition has been started asking technology giant, Google, to make all of their products more useable for those who are blind or vision impaired. Eliza Cussen from Media Access Australia is here to talk about why activism like this is needed.
Hello, Eliza.
Eliza: Hi Roberta.
Roberta: Now, what is the petition asking specifically?
Eliza: Well, I have to admit, it’s slightly vague, but simply put the petition is asking Google to consider the needs of people with disabilities when they design their products.
Roberta: And what kind of problems are there with Google’s product?
Eliza: Well, that varies a lot. One of the things Google is famous for is having an extreme variety of products they release, everything from mobile operating systems to social media to web apps. So we can see that across the product range Google lacks a culture where the blind or vision impaired user is being considered, things like unlabelled buttons on Google websites, for instance, that completely prevent a person with a screen reader using them.
Roberta: So how does this compare with the competition?
Eliza: Google’s biggest competitors are companies like Apple and Microsoft. Apple in particular is interesting to look at because of its longstanding commitment to accessibility over the years. For example, Apple made a screen reader available on the iPhone as far back as 2009. While it isn’t perfect, Apple is still seen as setting the standard for accessibility that companies like Google are catching up to.
Roberta: So why is a petition needed here?
Eliza: Well, that’s a bit of a sad truth, I’m afraid, Roberta. I think there’s still a lack of awareness even in giant corporations like Google and they don’t particularly see the blind market as one that’s big enough or exciting enough for them to spend time and money targeting.
So this is why consumers, like the person who started this petition, J.P. Shandra, need to get up and find another avenue. Not buying products isn’t really having a very good effect because that’s reinforcing Google’s perception that blind people don’t want to buy their products.
The truth is they do. They want diversity. They don’t necessarily want to have to buy a particular product from another company. They want the same choice as everybody else. So avenues like petitions are very useful things for being able to get up and launch a voice and to say, “Hi, we’re here and we want to use you.”
Roberta: Is it likely to work?
Eliza: That’s a slightly cynical question, Roberta. Look, I just checked the petition and it was up to 159 signatures. We’re talking on a global scale here and when you compare that to all the people who type in a Google search each day that’s a drop in the ocean. So if it is going to work it’s going to have to gain a lot more momentum, get a lot more attention.
Roberta: I think we need to get some other media involved in pushing this out to the world, I think.
Eliza: That’s it. Media coverage would definitely help. I think at this stage what we really need is for people to go on to sign the online petition, email it to their friends and family and just let people know that this is happening and that way it will kind of begin to snowball.
Roberta: Well, let’s hope that it does because you mentioned just a little while back there in this interview that there was an awareness problem. I can’t understand that because it’s been talked about so much. How can they not be aware of it?
Eliza: Exactly, and I really do think, and I hope to reassure listeners a little bit when I say this, there really is a global push towards accessibility. Google are making headway. They’ve done a lot of very good things in regards to captioning and deaf access and a lot of their products are improving. The latest release is Android, their operating system.
Roberta: Yes, we talked about that.
Eliza: Yeah, it’s becoming very much comparable to Apple products. It’s increasingly becoming a viable option and the great thing is a lot of Google products are cheaper. They’re free, a lot of them. Android phones tend to be a lot less expensive than Apple phones. It’s really beginning to get better.
Roberta: Well, that’s a good sign. Now, talk about signing, we want people to sign that petition.
Eliza: We do.
Roberta: And you can sign the petition online and all the information is there isn’t it?
Eliza: It is, yes.
Roberta: Well, thank you for all of that, Eliza. I do hope that it works. I really, really do because, as you said, they are very good at that company but they need to get a little bit better.
Eliza: That’s it. I think they need to know that people are paying attention.
Roberta: Well, thank you for all of that. I’ve been speaking with Eliza Cussen from Media Access Australia. Media Access Australia is a supporter of this program.