Accessibility rocks! (UXcamp Europe 2016)

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!”

Transcript

2. “The 11 in a11y stands 
 for the number of times 
 you have to tell developers 
 that accessibility is important.” 
 —Ian Devlin
3. a _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ y 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 c c e s s i b i l i t a11y
4. i _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 n t e r n a t i o n a l i z a t i o i18n
5. l _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 o c a l i z a t i o l10n
6. g _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 u n n a r b i t t e r s m a n g16n @ .
7. t o m a s c a s p e r s @tcaspers
8. c h r i s t i a n m ü l l e r @grafikkasper
12. Accessibility: ☛ content should be available to everyone ☛ functionality could be operated by everyone
13. visual motor hearing cognitive temporary permanent situational Impairments
14. “Everybody is a keyboard user 
 when eating lunch 
 with their mouse hand.” 
 —Adrian Roselli
15. “The disability is not the problem.
 The accessibility is the problem.” 
 —@PathstoLiteracy
16. “Accessibility is fundamentally 
 a design problem, 
 not a disability problem.” 
 —David Storey
17. “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
18. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) ☛ percievable ☛ operable ☛ understandable ☛ robust
27. “When I see inaccessible code, 
 my first thought isn’t ‘stupid developer’; 
 it’s ‘dysfunctional company design culture’.” 
 —Heydon Pickering
28. “How do I convince stakeholders?” “Don’t! Just go ahead and do it anyway!” 
 —Léonie Watson
29. “The best time 
 to consider accessibility 
 is at the beginning, 
 the second best time 
 is now.” 
 —David Bolter
30. “Accessibility is like a blueberry muffin—
 you can’t push the berries in there afterward.” 
 —Cordelia McGee-Tubb
31. “Arguing with teammates over ‘bothering with accessibility’ makes me so angry. Every. Time. So. Angry. Yes. ‘Bother’. It’s your job.” —Jen Simmons
35. “A11y Rocks” artwork by Heydon Pickering
36. “This is for everyone” photo by Nick Webb, CC-BY-2.0
37. Fira Sans and Fira Mono fonts by Erik Spiekermann