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Feminists Around the World: Olu Niyi Awosusi · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anny and Samantha and welcome to stuff
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: one never told you a protection of iHeartRadio.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: And welcome to another edition of Feminists around the World.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: And we are continuing in our celebration of a Disability
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Pride Month, and we're talking about the continuous work of
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Alu ni Awasusi. And I'm so sorry if I butchered
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: that I could not find anyone pronouncing their full name,
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: and so I had to go through different sites. If
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: someone knows the actual correct way, and if I did
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  Speaker 2: it wrong, please please please let us know, because just
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  Speaker 2: because I don't know how to say their name doesn't
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  Speaker 2: mean we don't want to talk about them. We think
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: it's important, so we will always put an effort. But
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: they do go by they then pronouns. But they've also
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: identified themselves as quote mad slash disabled, and I think
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: there's a lot to say to that, and they have
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: been upfront and vocal and advocating for more accessibility when
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: it comes to technology, and I don't think we talk
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: about this enough, so we wanted to highlight Alu and
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: their work. And Alu explains that their passionate about the
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Internet on their site Alu dot Online and if you
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: want to go to their site. They have a link
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: tree that has all of their sites. You can follow
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: them on patreont all the good things, so you should
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  Speaker 2: go check that out. But they say I've been in
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  Speaker 2: love with the Internet ever since I installed a dial
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  Speaker 2: up on the family computer back when Virgin Media was
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  Speaker 2: INTL and it timed out every fifteen minutes.
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  Speaker 1: I feel those pains.
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  Speaker 2: I believe that Internet is something that should be available
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  Speaker 2: and accessible to every and anyone who wants to use it.
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  Speaker 2: It has changed my life in innumerable ways, and I
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  Speaker 2: want everyone who wants to try to have the ability
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  Speaker 2: to build themselves a life with it or without it.
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  Speaker 2: And in an interview on medium dot com, they continue
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  Speaker 2: with computers themselves. I was always really interested in the
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: way things actually worked mechanically, and took a part of
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Broken Stereo when I was in primary school, much to
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: my mother's horror. And I'm doing a course called nand
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: to Tetris at the moment to get more of an
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: insight into how computers actually operate. And so they have
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  Speaker 2: obviously been doing this kind of as a side thing
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  Speaker 2: up until recently.
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  Speaker 1: They talk more about their interest in technology In a
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: twenty sixteen interview with how we get to next dot
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  Speaker 1: Com quote. I've always been interested, I just didn't think
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  Speaker 1: about it as a career. Neopets, a virtual pet website,
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  Speaker 1: was my first gateway into coding, as I got to
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: build a simple HTML and CSS page, which unfortunately was
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: lost in a purge, so I'll never see my first
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  Speaker 1: site again. I enjoyed electronics in school, but never thought
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  Speaker 1: to do a General Certificate of Secondary Education GCSE in it.
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  Speaker 1: So that was that as far as a career in
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  Speaker 1: tech was concerned. I never thought much about my love
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  Speaker 1: of computers. Fast forward to university, where I studied philosophy.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: I found out about Code Academy in my first year
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  Speaker 1: and was immediately hooked, but kept hitting walls. In my
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  Speaker 1: final year, I decided I wouldn't go into the third sector,
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  Speaker 1: nonprofit sector, and would focus on using my tech career
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  Speaker 1: to do good. I started taking my dabbling more seriously
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  Speaker 1: with skill Crush, Free code Camp, and other online learning
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  Speaker 1: platforms until I hit another wall and decided learning in
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: person would be the best. And by the way, I
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  Speaker 1: had a neopit you seemed very excited. Her name was
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Polaris and she was a blue unicorn. But unfortunately this
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: is no fault of anyone really, but it was a
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  Speaker 1: very like guilt heavy game for me because if you
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: didn't feed them, like, the messages you got.
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  Speaker 2: Were yeah, that really mean.
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  Speaker 1: It was intense and you know Polari's r ip.
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  Speaker 2: Oh no oh no oh no. I got the off
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  Speaker 2: brand ones because no one ever gave me a real one,
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  Speaker 2: So that just did not work out well for me.
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  Speaker 2: Off brand don't do off brand. So Alu obviously has
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: been doing a lot outside of just businesses and going
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  Speaker 2: to school. They've been doing boot camps and they continue
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: to do boot camps. They continue to learn and upgrade
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  Speaker 2: ha haha, their own knowledge. When it comes to tech, Alu,
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  Speaker 2: who has worked in the technology field for a while,
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  Speaker 2: has been passionate about the need for technology and the
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  Speaker 2: Internet to be accessible for all. They have spoken out
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  Speaker 2: talking about the statistics and the overall downfall of inaccessibility.
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  Speaker 2: In an article for a list part dot com, they write, globally,
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  Speaker 2: over forty percent of people still do not have access
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  Speaker 2: to the Internet. The lack of access and the issues
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  Speaker 2: that creates have helped motivate digital equity initiatives like Tech
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  Speaker 2: Goes Home and the Good Things Foundation and btdubs. They
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  Speaker 2: have actually done some nonprofits of their own like these,
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  Speaker 2: as well as inclusive clothing lines. We don't talk much
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  Speaker 2: about that, but they're into a lot and they continue.
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  Speaker 2: Having no access to the Internet creates problems in many
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  Speaker 2: parts of modern life. In the UK, bank branches are closing,
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  Speaker 2: forcing more to do their banking online. Many utilities now
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  Speaker 2: require Internet access to request or amends services or get
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  Speaker 2: better deals. Civil services such as registering to vote, are
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  Speaker 2: increasingly online. As this continues, people who have no access
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  Speaker 2: to broadband or who have limited access to mobile data
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  Speaker 2: fall behind. This often includes homeless people, elderly people and
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  Speaker 2: those on low incomes who are already operating at a disadvantage.
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  Speaker 1: And they go on writing specifically about the UK where
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  Speaker 1: they live. Quote. In the UK only thirty seven percent
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  Speaker 1: of people living in social housing are online. Approximately one
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  Speaker 1: in five adults with the disability in the UK have
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  Speaker 1: not used the Internet recently, and they make up half
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  Speaker 1: of the people who have not accessed the Internet in
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  Speaker 1: the last three months. Globally, the UN target for affordable
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  Speaker 1: moble data is two percent of monthly income for one
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  Speaker 1: gigabyte of data, and yet many countries are still nowhere
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  Speaker 1: near reaching this goal. Not having access to the Internet
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  Speaker 1: is expensive, walking you out of essential services and a
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  Speaker 1: surfeit of helpful information. Giving people full access to the
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  Speaker 1: splendors and knowledge of the online world should be imperative
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  Speaker 1: for everyone who works on it. Digital exclusion is when
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  Speaker 1: someone is unable or unwilling to access information and services online.
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  Speaker 1: In the UK, ten percent of the adult population was
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  Speaker 1: digitally excluded in twenty eighteen. The number of people in
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  Speaker 1: the UK lacking basic digital skills is decreasing, but in
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  Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, eight percent of adults in the UK four
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  Speaker 1: point three million people were estimated to have zero basic
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  Speaker 1: digital skills, which means they are unable to do things
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  Speaker 1: like buy items online, verify information, or send an email.
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  Speaker 1: Women are more likely to have no basic digital skills.
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  Speaker 2: Right this article came from twenty twenty, so it is
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  Speaker 2: a little bit outdated, but we still know that many
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  Speaker 2: people are not able to access it as in fact,
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  Speaker 2: Biden has tried to is trying to give access to
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  Speaker 2: the Internet countrywide. I don't think that has passed, but
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  Speaker 2: I know this in conversation because we understand how big
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  Speaker 2: of a need this is, especially today as we continue
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  Speaker 2: to be more dependent on access to Internet. Yeah, and
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  Speaker 2: when it comes to an accessibility, it isn't a secret
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  Speaker 2: that this is an intersectional issue. As ALU said in
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  Speaker 2: their twenty sixteen interview, I think getting more black people
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  Speaker 2: into technology is very important. When voices are excluded, it
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  Speaker 2: diminishes the possibility of innovation, the finished product, and the
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  Speaker 2: quality of the teams they aren't part of. I think
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  Speaker 2: the most effective way of achieving this is to signal
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  Speaker 2: boost willing black developers, to include us more in the
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  Speaker 2: narrative of what a developer is, and to make ourselves
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  Speaker 2: more available to curious people. For instance, I struggle to
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  Speaker 2: find any people of color or specifically black tech groups
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  Speaker 2: And Yeah, I think that's a conversation we need to
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  Speaker 2: have when it talks about why this issue has come
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  Speaker 2: about in the first place, because they didn't have enough
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  Speaker 2: people talking about it or representing their needs and and
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  Speaker 2: ALU's presentation for building an equitable Web, Alu says Diane Abbott,
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  Speaker 2: in case you don't know, was the first black female
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  Speaker 2: MP in the UK. She has received almost half the
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: abuse of tweets in the run up to the last
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  Speaker 2: elect general election thirty five percent. Black and ethnic minorities
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  Speaker 2: got more abuse than other MPs. More abuse is directed
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  Speaker 2: at her than any other MP, according to an Amnesty study.
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  Speaker 2: Mermaids is a charity that supports transgender and their parents.
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  Speaker 2: Their CEO, Susie Green, has been targeted with abuse and
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  Speaker 2: threats object Line and the online and the rise led
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  Speaker 2: them to having to block up to twenty accounts a
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  Speaker 2: day at one point. There's lots of misinformation outright lies
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  Speaker 2: spread by sites online about them and their work. So yes,
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: filtering LGBD content hurts the communities, so information support online
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  Speaker 2: is vital for LGBT situations, for escaping dangerous situations and
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  Speaker 2: accessing report and kools. LGBT topic words like bisexual are
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  Speaker 2: often blocked on the basis they might have sexual content.
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  Speaker 2: This is rarely true. Kids are trying to access life
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  Speaker 2: saving information about safety and are blocked from getting it
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  Speaker 2: on YouTube. LGBT issues are often demonized, restricted, or removed.
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  Speaker 2: I want to stress it is not always sexually explicit.
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  Speaker 2: People are trying to access just things they need, like
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  Speaker 2: charities or support groups, and even those are blocked. Another
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  Speaker 2: similar but not similarly in the vein of people being
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  Speaker 2: blocked from access is that men are more likely to
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  Speaker 2: use the Internet than women, So in the UK the
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  Speaker 2: number of non Internet users is declining, but around fifty
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  Speaker 2: eight percent of the women still. There is a disparity
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  Speaker 2: between men and women in digital skills too. So digital
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  Speaker 2: skills are things like being able to read an email
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  Speaker 2: or shop online, and of those who don't have any
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  Speaker 2: digital skills, sixty percent of of them are women. I
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: don't know if you would have known this, but Wikipedia
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  Speaker 2: editors are overwhelmingly mail or men, and in twenty eighteen,
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  Speaker 2: the Nobel Prize winner for physics done in a strict
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: land didn't have The vast majority of things written on
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  Speaker 2: Wikipedia about Africa are written by Europeans and Americans. So
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: essentially they're talking about how all these things are a
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  Speaker 2: problem because there's not enough representation in the field to
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: talk about these issues upfront, because it's obviously well though
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: they says sex, let's go ahead and block it without realizing, oh,
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  Speaker 2: the LGBT may have a situation with this or any
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: of that. So that's the bigger conversation of trying to
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  Speaker 2: bring that to light.
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  Speaker 1: Ray and with these continued issues, Alu also talks about
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  Speaker 1: the disparity of accessibility for the disabled communities. They say
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: many people with disabilities rely on screen readers and screen
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  Speaker 1: reader compatible sites to use the Internet. Screen readers can
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: be prohibitively expensive, while there are free options, one of
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  Speaker 1: the most do through screen readers at the time of
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: writing costs nearly twelve hundred dollars for a professional license.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Even with incredible innovation coming from within the disabled community,
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  Speaker 1: there's more that everyone else can do. In their February
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty evaluation, WebAIM found that ninety eight point one
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  Speaker 1: percent of the top million websites had detectable WCAG Web
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Content Accessibility Guidelines to errors. The most common WCAG two failures,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: such as missing alt texts for images, having empty links,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: and missing form labels, would be relatively simple to fix
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: because they are shared among most websites. Concentrating on fixing
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: them would have a huge overall benefit for the Internet.
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  Speaker 1: But as long as web accessibility standards are applied without rigor,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: aspects of a vast number of sites remain inaccessible, even
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: once users have a screen reader or other assistive technology.
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  Speaker 2: We've talked about that before, is like the only people
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: who can get access are those who have money, so
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  Speaker 2: while the intersectionality is like, okay, as long as you
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: have money, right, you're find being disabled because you'll have
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: access to the special things as long as you can
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: pay for it, which is completely, completely unfair and unjust. Yes,
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: so they expand on the detriment of these types of
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  Speaker 2: exclusionary practices, saying accessibility with that inclusion is not real accessibility.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: The curb cut effect, wherein improving access for people with
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: disabilities improves access for all, isn't the only reason to
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: increase web accessibility. We have a moral responsibilities as tech
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: workers to use any privilege that we may have to facilitate,
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: respond to, and support the efforts of marginalized people who
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: are working to carve out accessible spaces for themselves. Holstile
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: conditions created or reinforce by engineering and design choices make
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: being on the Internet harder for people who are queer,
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: of color, or disabled. They make it more difficult to
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: access life saving spaces, social spaces, and civic spaces both
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: on and offline. Thorough accessibility and real inclusion are the
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: solutions to these problems. To survive, marginalized people must work
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: both against and through the abuse and accessibility issues. They
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: face on online platforms, whereas anyone else gets to use
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: the Internet as they wish. This replicates the injustice of
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: offline in the online world.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: Aldo also goes on to talk about how people and
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: companies can work in correcting these issues, including adding captions,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: offering multiple formats for the platforms, advocating to actually fix
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: a problem, whether it is technical errors or finding more
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: accessible tools for everyone. They go on to explain in
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: their presentation, so the solution to these is to listen,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: to hire and collaborate with marginalized people. Is to make
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: sure that at every stage of your journey in this
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: that you are talking to marginalized people, that you're hiring
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: marginalized people and collaborating with them, and make sure that
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: you're including them every step of the journey, because they
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: will see things like this in your processes, they will
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: see things like this in your output. They will notice
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: and be loud and vocal about it. Yes, it's tiring
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: always to be on the outside of these decisions and
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: try to center the voices of the most marginalized. If
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: your trans black are somewhere in Africa, that you're going
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: to be much more affected by the issues. I've highlighted
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: so far, so try and highlight your most marginalized user.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: Right And in another interview all who says web accessibility
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: is not an optional extra. What inclusion looks like in
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: practice will depend on your products, your users, and what
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: you intend to achieve. But for it to be real
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: and meaningful in any context, it cannot be an afterthought.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: Engineering that makes inclusion and afterthought is engineering that rates
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: without morality and in doing so actively enacts harm. The
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: fact that this kind of engineering is commonplace on the
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: Internet does not make it okay. It just highlights the
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: way we have built the web is fundamentally broken. We
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: can do better. Yeah, And I think that's so important.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: We don't talk about this enough honestly, as we are
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: on the internet always, like Annie and I have an
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: amazing job where we can do things online and from
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: the comforts of our home, and we know that that
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: is because we are not in that marginalized group, And
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: so we have to have that conversation of what that
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: looks like and why we would bring we would start
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: a system broken instead of seeing it for what it
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: is and how to create it as a better platform
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: for everyone. Like I said, you should definitely go check
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: them out. So I'm going to spell their name so
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: you can go find them. Olu is their first name,
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: Niyi and then their last name is Awo s Usi.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: And they have their site at Alu dot online and
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: that you can go read their blogs and their projects.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: You can contact them, you can buy them in coffee,
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: which we will because they are amazing. And they're also
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: on Twitch. Really yeah, there you go go follow them.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, this is a hugely important thing. And I
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: feel like a lot of people, especially if you have
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: the Internet, you forget, like how much of our life
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: now depends on having the internet, especially during the pandemic.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: When the power goes out, you figure it out real quick.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and then you're like a shamed that you've
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: taken this for granted the whole time, but like especially
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: during the pandemic when it was like we're going to
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: have these medical consultations on like it's it's hugely important, right,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: So can't wait to check back in on this in
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: the future. In the meantime, listeners, if you have any
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: suggestions for this segment or anything else, please contact us
• 16:55
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• 16:57
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• 17:02
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