disability-> a physical, mental, cognitive, or developmental condition that limits a
person's ability to engage in certain tasks or participate in typical daily activities
assistive technology-> tools that help people perform tasks that might otherwise prove
a11y-> accessibility - a**********y (11s for 11 letters between a and y)
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) 1990, amended in 2009
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1)-> defines how to make the Web more
accessible to people with disabilities - A (lowest); AA (mid-tier); AAA (highest)
Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA)-> HTML attributes that define ways to make
web content more accessible
SECTION 2 - WHY WE DO THIS (A HISTORY LESSON)
in physical spaces, there are a lot of affordances which exist to help people with
disabilities
Strong Disability Movement in 60s and 70s --- still not perfect (obviously)
The Curb-Cut Effect-> the idea that improvements we make for users with disabilities end up
making things better for everyone
now there is a push for disability rights in our digital spaces --- there is legislation and
guidelines --- the software companies just need to put emphasis on it and make it happen
SECTION 3 - ACCESSIBILITY GREATEST HITS
making sure websites work with keyboards
can tab through a page
'blue outline' to show where focus is (default feature ina ll web browsers)
adjust focus when things like overlays pop up
skip links
Alt Text and Screen Reader Text
screen reader users can understand what the active element is
context needs to be properly communicated to user
informative images, icons, etc should have alt text descriptions
decorative things should have empty string alt text, which will remove them from
the tab order since they are necessary
Headings
screen readers rely on HTML headings to understand how the content on the page
is organized (think of this as like a table of contents for the page)
headings on the same level don't need to be styled the same
Low Vision
magnification (this a curb-cut effect feature --- people zoom in for all
kinds of reasons)
general contrast
high contrast themes
Cognitive Accessibility
users have varied reading levels and cognitive ability
if they can't understand the sentences in a FAQ post it is likely an accessibility
issues (for the content writers)
if they can't underrated how to use the site it might be an accessibility issue(for
the designers)
or sometimes it's that the user doesn't know how to use their assistive
technology
SECTION 4 - EVERYBODY NEED TRAINING
Google's free online course
"Web Accessibility By Google - Developing with Empathy"
on Udacity
Frontend Masters
Accessibility in Javascript Applications by Marcy Sutton
SECTION 5 - TEST FOR A11Y & SHARE KNOWLEDGE
there are companies to help with this (if can afford them) because it is hard to tell if
thing will work for everyone
can have an a11y dashboard for tracking a11y metrics
good for very simple things, but not big issues
can get input from local a11y communities, meet-ups, etc
make your knowledge available to others
document it --- coding best practices, design best practices, etc