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Editors’ Pick|Feb 8, 2021,01:57pm EST|
Clubhouse Is A Club So Exclusive, It Excludes Disabled People By Design
Steven Aquino
Contributor
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Steven covers accessibility and assistive technology.
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I joined Clubhouse recently, the hot new social network that allows users to create rooms and talk to one another in real time. The company describes its service as “drop-in audio chat.” Most of the conversations are between Silicon Valley elites such as Facebook’s Mark Zuckerburg, Tesla’s Elon Musk, and more, discussing industry issues and whatnot. The app is exclusive in a couple of ways: it’s currently available only on iOS and one must receive an invite to join, which is what happened to me.
I haven’t been on Clubhouse long; I haven’t even listened in on a conversation, much less start one of my own. Nonetheless, I’ve poked around the app long enough to realize there are myriad problems with it from an accessibility perspective. In a broad scope, these user interface problems speak volumes of not only product design, it also speaks volumes of the systemic ableism that pervades society—yet confronted far less.
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