Comment by sublinear
6 hours ago
It's the same k-shaped tug of war and general grift as ever.
A good design is an accessible design, but those with the means to pay for good design are increasingly being funneled into buying more bespoke products that prioritize materials and aesthetics over functionality. When the damn thing doesn't really work as expected, it's a waste. You don't even need to cram it full of quickly obsoleted gadgetry to pull this off. It doesn't really matter if it's durable and looks amazing when it's useless. Whatever gets you to buy another one anyway.
The only people happy with this situation are those who sell us overpriced junk. They're laughing all the way to the bank.
If we want more accessibility, we need to be making better designed products with mass appeal. We're well into a postmodern world where cost can be adjusted for any price point without sacrificing the design. Their trick is to introduce deliberate subtle flaws into products to keep you buying. It needs to stop. We need standards.
Anything we do to stop enshittification at this point is like fixing a sinking ship with duct tape. You're working against human nature, it's not going to happen.
I avoided saying "enshittification" because this is something distinct.
If you want to dilute the term, maybe it says more about some consumer beliefs than the actual problem.
I'm saying that accessible design is caught in this crossfire, not that we can't make things more accessible until we fix "enshittification".
Much of accessible design actually does overlap with what's demanded in higher-end products. We lost some of that during previous eras of enshittification back when it used to be more expensive to make such designs. Now it all costs the same. I'm saying it's now a marketing problem, not an enshittification problem.
against capitalism's nature, you mean