Report from the moderators of r/blind about their latest meeting with Reddit representatives

ADA doesn't just apply to employees. If you have a service animal, it doesn't matter if you're an employee, a customer, or a passerby. Businesses open to the public are subject to the ADA as well, even on the web since 1996 according to ada.gov:

For these reasons, the Department has consistently taken the position that the ADA’s requirements apply to all the goods, services, privileges, or activities offered by public accommodations, including those offered on the web.

And even lists some examples of cases where the Department of Justice went after businesses for ADA failures:

• Rite Aid Corporation: The Department reached an agreement with Rite Aid Corporation to address accessibility barriers in Rite Aid’s COVID-19 Vaccine Registration Portal.
• Teachers Test Prep, Inc.: The Department reached an agreement with Teachers Test Prep, Inc., regarding complaints that the test prep company’s online video courses did not provide captions and were inaccessible to people who are deaf.
• HRB Digital and HRB Tax Group (H&R Block): The Department reached an agreement with H&R Block to address claims that the company failed to code its website so that individuals with disabilities could use assistive technology such as screen reader software, refreshable Braille displays, keyboard navigation, and captioning.
• Peapod: The Department reached an agreement with Peapod to address claims that its online grocery delivery services were not accessible to some individuals with disabilities.

It's not an argument about reasonable accomodations to work, it's an argument about not having unnecessary barriers that make it impossible for disabled people to frequent your business.

Wake up? No, sir, Huffman thought Reddit was dead in 2006 and washed his hands of it gladly nearly twenty years ago. This isn't some tender father about to mistakenly marry his only daughter to a criminal. This is a man selling property to the highest bidder.

It kind of stings a little bit when I think about how much money I left on the table. [The sale] was a big deal for me at the time. I was 22 and it seemed like a lot of money for me.

"In hindsight it was a mistake to sell but at the time it was very exciting. I didn't think Reddit was going to keep growing – I thought it was dead. We were so dysfunctional internally. It seemed like the smartest thing to do was just to try and get some money out of it while we could."

https://www.theage.com.au/technology/atrocious-mobile-sucks-reddit-cofounder-steve-huffman-on-what-site-has-become-20141208-122txn.html

My personal hope is that the moderators of r/blind find some legal assistance in giving Reddit a wakeup call. I don't think there's any hope for Reddit to do anything useful without being forced to. Which tends to be the case with accessibility, people who don't care aren't going to care until they have some consequences. And then they still don't actually care, but they would rather not be sued.

Of course, I wouldn't blame the mods if they got fed up and just walked away. Fighting to keep accomodations that you already had and are being taken away from you must be exhausting.

I used to be "optimistic" that any corporate leaders will do whatever it takes to make as much money as possible as fast as possible. It was at least predictable behavior. Now it's even scarier because powerful people will torch their companies and reputation just for an ego trip, fundamentally changing the structures of media empires just so they can win the approval of random losers on the internet.