Design Bias is Ruining Accessibility

In keeping with our season long discussion of trust on the internet, on this bonus episode of Function - we explore online safety. Writer and activist Feminista Jones talks about the lasting effects of online harassment. Then, Anil talks with Tarah Demant of Amnesty International about an Amnesty report that calls out the abuse and harassment women face on Twitter. Finally Anil speaks with Gina Bianchini, CEO of Mighty Networks, about her platform and what it takes to build safer online communities. LINKS: Toxic Twitter - Amnesty International Report Mighty Networks

The integrity of the internet is at stake -- what have we lost and how do we get it back? At the 2019 Texas Tribune Festival, Anil spoke with web scholars and writers about reclaiming the internet through historical context, how we are tethered to social media and the inventive ways marginalized people have always reinvented the platforms available. Panelists Charlton McIlwain Anne Helen Petersen Sarah T. Roberts Siva Vaidhyanathan

Are social networks downplaying their complicity in the problem that is “fake news?”Anil talks to Fadi Quran of the people powered social advocacy group, Avaaz, about how tech is used to target groups of people and spread disinformation that affects our elections, relationships, and social justice movements. Together they discuss insidious nature of disinformation and misinformation, meet its victims, and go over solutions.  Listen closely for the steps that platforms can take right now to stem the tide of fake news and fake accounts.  LINKS: Avaaz.org Factbook.org

What happens when social networks become social media, and tech starts making editorial decisions? Anil talks with NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen about the priorities of tech companies and how their faux neutrality and feigned ignorance has taken a toll on our news cycles and elections. Together, they identify the problems that the press is facing, like attention hacking and misinformation, in order to focus on how the press and us as citizens can reclaim “the news” and what they care about.

Part 2 of Anil's discussion of Prince's complicated relationship with technology. How do you go from fan to colleague to friend with an icon? Prince’s manager, Phaedra Ellis Lamkins and Sam Jennings, one of Prince’s webmasters take us on a journey of growth and evolution of an artist realizing his worth and his power. As part of a team of trusted friends and confidants they helped “The Artist” realize tech dreams that would serve us all. We also learn that the vision of freedom we often associate with Prince isn’t what we thought.

What does it mean to be on the receiving end of a Prince direct message? This week on Function, Anil takes us through Prince’s complicated relationship with technology through his eyes and the eyes of super fans Jay Smooth, social commentator and former host of WBAI's Underground Railroad; and Andrea Swensson, host and writer at Minnesota Public Radio’s The Current, where she helms The Local Show, a weekly show dedicated to exploring the Minnesota music scene. From being summoned to Paisley Park to being part of early crowdfunding and subscriber based models pioneered by Prince; we learn what it felt like to build a relationship with Prince online a decade before social media made artists accessible to fans. As Prince's relationship with technology evolved, he worked hard to control his image often times butting heads with his fans and record labels. ***Check out Anil's guest episode with Switched on Pop where he talked more in-depth about the ways technology influenced Prince's music. ***

Function is back next week with a new episode. In the meantime, check out Reset from Vox and Recode. Students across the country are graded by artificial intelligence. But does an algorithm really know how to write? Links to resources discussed: Flawed Algorithms Are Grading Millions of Students’ Essays How I’m using AI to write my next novel Featuring: @SigalSamuel @ToddFeathers About Reset Every story is a tech story. We live in a world where algorithms drive our interests, scientists are re-engineering our food supply, and a robot may be your next boss. Host Arielle Duhaime-Ross explores why–and how–tech is changing everything. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to Reset for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast, Pocket Casts, or your favorite podcast app to get new episodes every week.

Anil speaks with Dr. Ruha Benjamin, Associate Professor in the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University and author of Race After Technology, about design discrimination. They discuss how systemic racism is replicated in the technology we use and how tools like artificial intelligence, machine learning and software used in the criminal justice system are shaped by racial bias. Then he speaks with James Cadogan, VP of Criminal Justice, and Kristin Bechtel, Director of Criminal Justice Research, for Arnold Ventures, a non-profit that funds the Public Safety Assessment, a tool used by judges that predicts a person's likelihood to reoffend or return to court if released.

It seems like every month a new cringe worthy picture of a public official in Blackface is shared on social media. The pictures usually surface decades after they were taken but they are born out of a long tradition of Blackface and racial mockery in America. But that tradition isn't just a part of our history, it's being replicated online through our use of GIFs. Anil talks with Dr. Lauren Michelle Jackson, author of White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue & and Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation and Kenyatta Cheese, digital enthusiast, cofounder of Everybody at Once, and founder of Know Your Meme, about digital blackface. They discuss how we can examine our online persona's and how algorithmic choices reflect systemic bias.

Are we making sure the tech we create is usable for the people we say we want to help? Accessibility is more than a buzzword. Anil speaks with Emily Ladau, co- host of The Accessible Stall podcast; Alex Haagaard, Director of Communications at the Disabled List, and Vilissa Thompson, founder of Ramp Your Voice, about accessibility bias in tech and what abled designers can unlearn in order to create more inclusive apps.  These activists are dedicated to making sure disabled people are represented in the design processes within tech and all facets of society.