We, the users, supporters, and those who have donated to Ravelry, the ones who use the site day in and day out, sign this petition to signify our anger, disappointment, and frustration with the owners of Ravelry.

Ravelry has been made aware numerous times that the new website design has detrimental and deleterious effects on people with a wide variety of disabilities – not limited to visual impairments and or disabilities, neurological impairments and or disabilities, physical impairments and or disabilities.

While Ravelry has provided a “feedback form,” it was initially created in a style that was inaccessible to many users with disabilities. The feedback form also confused people by initially violating international law by failing to disclose what data would be collected, how said data would be stored, for how long it would be stored, etc.

Ravelry placed the main link for the feedback form in a place infrequently visited by most site users since many users stay logged in to the site. Further, Ravelry has the link for the “feedback form” in the original post of a non-stickied thread in the group “For the Love of Ravelry” and that thread consistently gets moved to the bottom of the board.

Until now, Ravelry has historically listened to and learned from users of color, BIPOC users, and LGBTQ+/queer users, and other disenfranchised populations, and then made thoughtful changes to the site. A Pride Flag is regularly added to the logo during Pride Month; site users are able to add their pronouns to their profile; site users are able to choose a Pride symbol to add to their profile; Ravelry denounced Trump, declaring that all posts and projects supporting him would be deleted; and Ravelry has supported the BLM movement. Ravelry has stated it wants to be an inclusive space for crafters, but all of Ravelry’s actions since the new site was rolled out have disproven that.

Ravelry has constantly and consistently deleted, merged into locked threads, or otherwise used moderator tools to suppress the voices of people with disabilities and their supporters. One of the Ravelry owners, Cassidy Forbes, has stated that she supports these moderator actions.

Ravelry has publicly stated it intends to proceed with the new site and will give one (1) six-month warning to users using the “classic look” when it will cease supporting the “classic look” and users will be forced to use the new site.

We are disappointed by the lack of communication and transparency from Ravelry with regard to how it intends to openly listen and learn from all stakeholders, remedy the accessibility issues, and keep accessibility in mind going forward.

We are angry that Ravelry is silencing a large swath of Ravelry users, which is inconsistent with its prior actions towards disenfranchised populations.

We are frustrated that Ravelry is violating the civil rights of many Ravelry users, ignoring the warnings of many users during beta testing that the new site was not working with accessibility features.

We call upon Ravelry to:

• Either hire or consult an accessibility expert, a web design expert who specializes in accessibility, or, at the very least, familiarize yourself with some of the many sites that help with ADA accessibility. Please stop relying on an open-access site run by Google to measure accessibility and depend on real people who are familiar with accessibility features;

• Wait until you have a site that is fully ADA compliant before you make the new site an option for anyone. People who are disabled shouldn’t have to choose the option that Ravelry itself considers “less than;”

• Openly listen to users affected by the site changes without responding. Take in what is being said without being defensive. No one believes Ravelry set out to design a site that would be harmful. At this point, people want to be heard, and Ravelry’s actions are not allowing that;

• Treat people with disabilities as if they were any other marginalized group – because we are. Just as Ravelry has supported and defended BIPOC, BLM, LGBTQ+, etc., so should it support and defend people with disabilities. If Ravelry read all of the posts and, indeed, this petition replacing “people with disabilities” with “[other marginalized group],” we believe action would have already been taken.