A presentation at A11y Camp 2021 by Allison Ravenhall
Allison Ravenhall @RavenAlly https://noti.st/allisonravenhall
“It meets WCAG 3 AAA” - Chatbot vendor, 2018 (Note: WCAG 3 doesn’t exist yet).
“None of the other banks asked about accessibility” - FX calculator vendor (Note: Just because someone hasn’t asked you about it before doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist or it isn’t important)
“It’s Google Material, you don’t need to test it” - Developer (This is an astounding level of trust to place in anything)
“Apple does it, so it must be accessible” - Designer (Fanboi much? Biggest company, market leader, trend setter, coolest kid - none of these should exempt you from scrutiny.
These attitudes get me riled.
Employ a healthy level of scepticism
Trust no one
Ask to see their accessibility documentation (VPAT, conformance statements, etc.) Test a live demo Ask about their accessibility defect processes (do they have a dedicated team, how are they prioritised/categorised, what is a typical turnaround timeline)
Ask for evidence (documentation and defects can be tracked, verbal promises less so) Don’t buy into the BS (look past the sales spin, get all the info you need to satisfy yourself of quality) No free passes for current or past vendors (start assessing every new product from the same point regardless of who is providing it)
Don’t assume they’re accessible Submit bugs (if you have a framework issue, so is everyone else using the framework, so help make it collectively better) Extend rather than reinvent (maximise compatibility, make use of the good bits, add the missing bits and uplift the bad bits, should be less work long term than reinventing the wheel)
Default iOS UISwitch colours Green “on” = 2.2 : 1 Grey “off” = 1.2 : 1
Green “on” = 4.4 : 1 Grey “off” = 3 : 1
If we extend UISwitch, we get free event handlers, label, role, state management & reporting Define your own colour palette using tintColor, onTintColor, thumbTintColor
Assume nothing + Trust no one =
Allison Ravenhall @RavenAlly noti.st/allisonravenhall
“<A> published this so it must be accessible.” Not necessarily. “<B> is accessible because it’s used on so many sites” Yeah, nah. Cautionary tales about the need to check the accessibility of frameworks and third-party components, and what to do when they’re broken.
Here’s what was said about this presentation on social media.
for free. You
can too.