We have all heard about website accessibility (a11y) and know what it means in a broad sense, but what does website accessibility look like in a practical sense?
This month’s A11Y Talk featured Scott O'Hara from The Paciello Group. In this A11Y Talk, Scott O'Hara addressed questions like:
- How do I get started in a11y?
- How do I get my team to care about it?
- Where does one start in trying to incorporate a11y into the work they or their team produce?
- Who is in charge of a11y at your company anyway?
Takeaways
Who's in Charge of Accessibility?
Everyone! Accessibility can't just be the task of a single person; not even if there's an accessibility lead. No one person should be expected to do or know everything. Early and frequent communication will be the key to understanding intent and appropriate a11y.
How to get my team to care about it?
People only care about the things they care about - and people only care about the things they know they should care about. So, it is important to be nice and listen.
Empathy is effective - It can be hard for some to empathize, if they are unaware of what they should be empathizing about. So, make them aware.
Tie it all back to the work to help promote baking in accessibility practices from the start.
General Tips & Resources
- Devs: Learn Your HTML - Not just the obvious, but really understand the semantics and when to use what.
- Understand the Role CSS Plays - For the most part, CSS is for styling only but can affect accessibility.
- Try Thinking About the Bits That Aren't "Exciting" - e.g., error messages, empty states, trimming down content and action items.
- Embrace Progressive Enhancement - A core principal to accessible and inclusive user experiences is to ensure they're always accessible.
- Appropriate alt for images
- Logical <h1> - <h6> order
- Links go places, buttons do things
- Content is keyboard accessible!
- Is state properly conveyed?
Starting from Scratch?
Lean on accessible resources such as:
- WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices 1.1
- Inclusive Components
- The A11Y Project
- A11Y Style Guide
- Deque Labs Pattern Library
Have to Work with What You Have?
Become Familiar with Auditing:
- WCAG 2.0 Quick Ref. Guide
- Screen Reader & Browser Pairings
- What's new in WCAG 2.1
- Automated checkers:
Guidance by People, Not Specs
- Join web-a11y - Slack or a11ySlackers - Gitter channels
- Vox a11y Guidelines
- Creating an Accessible Culture - Shopify
- Creating an Accessibility Engineering Practice - by @dxna
Most Important Thing to Do to Get Started in Accessibility?
Just get started.
Resources
Youtube Video
A11Y Talks September 2017 - Scott O'Hara - Every Day Website Accessibility
Drupal Accessibility Group
Join the Accessibility group on Drupal.org for hints, tips, discussions, and patch proposals to help make Drupal more inclusive.
Next month:
A11Y Talks - October 25th, 2017 (12pm ET)
Accessibility: Don't turn off that JavaScript just yet with Nicolas Steenhout. This presentation will cover some of the issues that can arise from using JavaScript, and how scripting can be used in a way that still ensures accessibility.