News
13th January 2023
Browser discrimination by ability not name
Further investigation by Diverse Diversity Campaign Director, K.J. Petrie, has revealed the process by which visitors to certain websites can be denied access if they are not using software approved by the sites’ administrators.
The sites are built on a platform called Wix which produces code which tests all the capabilities Wix might use and replaces the page content with the denial message if the browser lacks any of these abilities. Instead of failing gracefully, it seems Wix see no reason to allow users of such software to access their clients’ content at all. This has the effect of denying all access to users whose software is considered less able.
Whilst it is obvious this might impact the style of presentation of information, there should be alternative ways to make the information accessible and total denial of service on a basis not relevant to the information itself remains a breach of Diverse Diversity principles.
The DDC has approached Wix via Twitter for comment, but Wix have not responded and the question has been deleted.