Making standards work for everyone

State of the Browser conference September 2019 Making standards work for everyone Sally Lait @sallylait sally.dev

@sallylait !

@sallylait

@sallylait 🧼/🏢

@sallylait $ Why standards are important % What weʼre up against & The practical example bit

@sallylait Sally Lait Senior Engineering Manager Monzo Bank @sallylait sally.dev

What are standards?

“Web standards are the formal, non-proprietary standards and other technical specifications that define and describe aspects of the World Wide Web. In recent years, the term has been more frequently associated with the trend of endorsing a set of standardized best practices for building web sites, and a philosophy of web design and development that includes those methods.” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web̲standards

“Considerations include the interoperability, accessibility and usability of web pages and web sites.” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web̲standards

Why standards are !important

@sallylait ’ (

@sallylait

@sallylait

@sallylait codepen.io/greywillfade/pen/wvwqKJN

@sallylait codepen.io/greywillfade/pen/QWLqpgy w3.org/International/questions/qa-lang-why

@sallylait

Tools and technologies e.g. frameworks, dev tools 📃 🎶 🖼 @sallylait Tools and technologies e.g. browsers, assistive technologies ,

Developers Users Guidelines, specifications, standards

What weʼre up against

@sallylait

<!DOCTYPE html>

@sallylait . “I hate accessibility and believe if you canʼt see, youʼre not worthy of using my website.”

@sallylait Early Late majority majority Early adopters Innovators Laggards

@sallylait $ People who donʼt know about these topics at all % People who know itʼs a thing but donʼt care about it & People who know and care, but canʼt prioritise above other things

People interpret standards differently

@sallylait xkcd.com/927/

@sallylait U+1F469 U+200D U+1F4BB

Even standards can be wrong

@sallylait ひらがなカタカナ漢字

@sallylait

@sallylait 幽霊文字 👻 墸壥妛挧暃椦槞蟐袮閠駲彁

“In 1978 a series of small mistakes created some characters out of nothing. The errors went undiscovered just long enough to be set in stone, and now these ghosts are, at least in potential, a part of every computer on the planet, lurking in the dark corners of character tables.” Paul McCann, dampfkraft.com/ghost-characters.html

Making standards the standard

@sallylait Individuals Teams Discipline Industry-wide Company-wide

@sallylait $ Donʼt know % Donʼt care & Canʼt prioritise

When people donʼt know

@sallylait Tell people 1:1 🗣

@sallylait Knowledge sharing 🎤

@sallylait Make it easy to know Images taken from web.dev/accessibility-auditing-react

@sallylait Think about your structure 🕸🏗

@sallylait Grow your (and othersʼ) influence ✨

@sallylait github.com/UKHomeOffice/posters/ microsoft.com/design/inclusive/ Give i t visi bilit y

@sallylait t i e v i G y t i l i b i s i v 📈📉📊

When people donʼt care

@sallylait Tell stories From: twitter.com/type̲̲error/status/1154417188314505216

@sallylait Tell stories twitter.com/tony̲sutton/status/1131256182163812352

@sallylait Donʼt (overly) rely on documentation 📚

Help people understand how it relates to their career @sallylait testingisbelieving.blogs pot.com/2017/11/ wheel-of-testing-part-3applications.html

@sallylait e r u t l u c r u ) o y m a d e l t i u e s B r e iv d a d n (a 9 : < 🤷 ; >

Force people to care! progression.monzo.com @sallylait

@sallylait Level 2 web engineer

@sallylait Level 3 web engineer

@sallylait Level 4 web engineer

When people canʼt prioritise

@sallylait Logic & data 🤔

@sallylait Scare them! theguardian.com/music/2019/jan/04/beyonce-parkwood-entertainment-sued-over-website-accessibility

@sallylait Do it regardless

@sallylait @ State intent

@sallylait @ Use your platform for good

@sallylait @ Focus, and do something well

State of the Browser conference September 2019 Thanks! 💙 Sally Lait @sallylait sally.dev