Typing Quirks in MOGAI & Accessibility
[pt: Typing Quirks in MOGAI & Accessibility]
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Accessibility in MOGAI is very important, and this post is not trying to diminish that. It's also important to note that I, personally, do not need IDs/PT to find posts accessible, so I don't know firsthand what it's like to navigate the community with those needs. With that in mind, I'm here to talk about my feeling that a lot of the discussion around accessibility in MOGAI is performative and misguided.
A lot of the concern with accessibility in MOGAI is about typing quirks. I understand this; they can be so inaccessible for SO many reasons, they can break screen readers, they can be flat out difficult or impossible to read. I know this. But I also fear that this emphasis is put on them for the wrong reasons, and that they are often unfairly generalized in ways that are ableist on their own.
A lot of the typing quirks used in coining are purely for aesthetics or enjoyment. I don't encourage this usage of quirking, and I support spreading awareness about how it can be harmful. But it NOT helpful to assume that all quirks are for this reason, or to try and discriminate based on context why a quirk is used.
I don't think most people in this conversation realize where typing quirks even come from; they are a media invention, they are from Homestuck. This means that they can hold a lot of importance to fictionfolk, introjects, DAs, etc. For many people in these groups, typing without a quirk can be difficult, feel unnatural, or cause unwarranted amounts of distress.
There are a lot of people who have innate typing quirks, and they can't get rid of them just for a Tumblr post. There are also a lot of people who could theoretically translate, but it takes more effort than is reasonable for a coining post and is thus still infeasible. Quirks can also be an OCD compulsion; if you are unfamiliar, compulsions are often inherently irrational and the perceived danger associated with failing to follow them is disproportionate to the compulsion itself.
Evidently, I do not quirk on my coining blog, outside of tags and character multiplying (typing things 8x). This is not something I would've been capable of six months ago. It took me a lot to work up to! I have OCD and my quirk often got tangled up in it as a compulsion, alongside being deeply important to my self expression. Outside of the imaginary danger posed by not quirking manufactured by my OCD, I also have to deal with the real danger of being invalidated for not quirking.
I have, on multiple occasions, have people try to invalidate my identity on the basis of me not quirking because I am trying to be accessible. There is always the thought in the back of my mind when I make posts without my quirk that I will not be accepted for who I am, and the only reason I am able to ignore those thoughts is because the QAI community is so accepting compared to the other online spaces I am in. Even if I HADN'T been told to my face that I'm not Vriska without the quirk, it's still very important to me and I feel pretty... Bald, not using it. But that discomfort, for me, is small enough in comparison to the importance of accessibility for me to ignore it.
I'm deeply uncomfortable and othered when people insinuate that typing quirks are pointless nuisances, or speak about them like they don't have any place in this community. I will reiterate: I think that if you can manage it, you should try to make your posts accessible. But not everyone can manage it. I'm disheartened when I realize that the fictionfolk in the spaces I'm in don't hang out as often as they could or want to because the way they communicate is outright banned. A space can be made inaccessible by quirking, yes, but is it not just as much making the space inaccessible to prevent those who use them from speaking?
It can't be ignored that typing quirks are associated with weird, "cringe" people, and fictionfolk. I believe this is a part of the reason why they're discussed in this way, and highlighted disproportionately compared to other accessibility issues. I see coiners without quirks prioritizing aesthetics over accessibility all the time, but I mean... It's pretty, right? Not at all like those weird fictionkin who get too into their roleplay and talk weird about it. (Heavily sarcastic tone for the last 2 sentences).
In general, a lot of accessibility information focuses entirely on visual accessibility: image IDs, plain text, minimizing eyestrain, and being epilepsy safe, but this is just one aspect of accessibility and we are doing our community a disservice by not talking about other ways we need to be accessible. I have multiple learning disabilities and I often struggle to interpret the way coins are worded, I feel left behind by other coiners who seem to talk about concepts like qualities and gender nature like it's easy. (I'm sure it is for many people: it is not for me.)
This is a community full of systems, and people with amnesia, and people with cognitive and mental disabilities, and yet it's so common that people leave terms half-defined or neglect to link to the base or umbrella term so that people who struggle with these things can actually understand the term. I'm sure there are many more facets in which accessibility can be improved that I haven't even thought of. I would love to hear more conversation about lesser-discussed forms of accessibility, and how coiners can do better to include all disabled people.
I understand that a long post like this is also inherently inaccessible to a lot of people. I tried my darndest to condense my thoughts but, I'm a Serket, so. Yammering. That's the thing, accessibility is not something that can ever be fully achieved. People have conflicting needs and there will always be at least one person left behind when you swing too hard in one direction: that's okay. The best we can do as a community is navigate these things on a case-by-case basis, and listen when concerns are brought up. And be niceys to me in the notes also! That is a really good thing you can do as a community!
[Image id: A thin divider with a vertical gradient in the colors of the desaturated maverique flag: orange, white, and yellow.]
