A presentation at UXcamp Europe 2016 in in Berlin, Germany by Gunnar Bittersmann
“The 11 in a11y stands for the number of times you have to tell developers that accessibility is important.” —Ian Devlin
a11y a c _ c _ e _ s _ s _ i _ b _ i _ l _ i _ t _ y 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
i18n i n _ t _ e _ r _ n _ a _ t _ i _ o _ n _ a _ l _ i _ z _ a _ t _ i _ o _ n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
l10n l o _ c _ a _ l _ i _ z _ a _ t _ i _ o _ n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
@g16n. g u _ n _ n _ a _ r _ _ b _ i _ t _ t _ e _ r _ s _ m _ a _ n _ n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
@tcaspers t o m a s c a s p e r s
@grafikkasper c h r i s t i a n m ü l l e r
Accessibility: ☛ content should be available to everyone ☛ functionality could be operated by everyone
Impairments visual motor hearing cognitive temporary permanent situational
“Everybody is a keyboard user when eating lunch with their mouse hand.” —Adrian Roselli
“The disability is not the problem. The accessibility is the problem.” —@PathstoLiteracy
“Accessibility is fundamentally a design problem, not a disability problem.” —David Storey
“Developers…don’t really understand anything beyond the superficial appearance on screen and whether you can interact with it the way they would interact with it.” —Karl Groves
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) ☛ percievable ☛ operable ☛ understandable ☛ robust
“When I see inaccessible code, my first thought isn’t ‘stupid developer’; it’s ‘dysfunctional company design culture’.” —Heydon Pickering
“How do I convince stakeholders?” “Don’t! Just go ahead and do it anyway!” —Léonie Watson
“The best time to consider accessibility is at the beginning, the second best time is now.” —David Bolter
“Accessibility is like a blueberry muffin— you can’t push the berries in there afterward.” —Cordelia McGee-Tubb
“Arguing with teammates over ‘bothering with accessibility’ makes me so angry. Every. Time. So. Angry. Yes. ‘Bother’. It’s your job.” —Jen Simmons
“A11y Rocks” artwork by Heydon Pickering
“This is for everyone” photo by Nick Webb, CC-BY-2.0
Fira Sans and Fira Mono fonts by Erik Spiekermann
Accessibility (sometimes abbreviated as a11y) means that content should be available to everyone and that functionality could be operated by everyone. This session aims to raise awareness of this topic, as Ian Devlin says, “The 11 in a11y stands for the number of times you have to tell developers that accessibility is important.” Add “and designers and product managers.” To bear accessibility in mind does not mean to design for just a small minority (eg. blind users). Everyone can have visual, motor, hearing, or cognitive impairments—be it temporary, permanent, or situational. Everyone benefits from accessible web pages/applications.
In this session, we’ve discussed the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), tools like color contrast checkers, and how to build an accessible form with HTML by just following some basic rules.
Because it’s your job! Even if your stakeholders are not yet convinced that accessibility is important, follow Léonie Watson’s advice: “Just go ahead and do it anyway!” Because as Tim Berners-Lee said, “This is for everyone!”
