Category:Accessibility

The Basics

Accessibility in the sense considered here refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments so as to be usable by people who experience disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i.e. unassisted) and "indirect access" meaning compatibility with a person's assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers).

From Accessibility on Wikipedia

Types of Disabilities

Business Value

Good accessibility is good business.

• It provides access to a market of customers that otherwise cannot spend money on your product.
• It provides a competitive advantage over companies that are not accessible - Dell Corporate has lost bids to more accessible competitors in the government sector, and we'd rather be the company others lose bids to.
• It frequently provides higher quality than inaccessible products -- products that are thought through from an accessibility lens are often easier to use for non-disabled users, or provide features that otherwise may not be thought about. (For example, while Closed Captioning was developed specifically for Deaf audiences, it's a service that almost everyone has used at some point, whether at a crowded bar or in a room with a sleeping baby.)
• It ensures continued use of the product to customers that transition from non-disabled to disabled. (Keeping a customer is just as important as gaining a customer.)
• It lowers legal risk of civil rights and access lawsuits.

Further reading:

• Why Designing for Accessibility is Simply Good Business by Digital Design Standards
• The Business Value of Integrating Accessible Technology into Business Organizations by Microsoft
• Why accessibility is good for business (according to my mechanic) by Nicholas Steenhout at Simply Accessible
• The disabled community is the world's third-largest economic power by Christina Mallon at Quartz.

Legal Issues

One of the most, um, motivating aspects of accessibility law is the ability for someone with a disability to sue or register a complaint against the US Office for Civil Rights (OCR) (and similar offices in other countries) when a physical or virtual location is inaccessible. Read about Accessibility Legal Issues.

Standards and Guidelines

The official standard is the WCAG 2.0 standard by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). For resources related to the standard, see Category: WCAG Guidelines.

• BBC Mobile Accessibility Standards & Guidelines
• IBM Web Accessibility Checklist Version 7

Getting it done

Accessibility 101: The things you need to get started

Fostering the Culture

• Extreme Design by Derek Featherstone is a one-hour video of how accessible design benefits everyone.
• Creating a Culture of Accessibility by Cordelia McGee Tubs at the Dropbox Tech Blog. This article discusses generating excitement around accessibility, running an accessibility device lab, rewarding the organization's champions, spreading knowledge, and developing a culture of learning around accessibility.
• Reframing Accessibility for the Web by me at A List Apart. This article discusses how stereotypes work, how they're interfering with our accessible design process, and one approach to testing for accessibility that takes the stereotypes out of the direct line of fire.
• Accessibility for Teams by the US Government outlines how each role at an organization or in a team can improve the accessibility of a product.

Agile and Accessibility

• How to write user stories user stories for web accessibility by Kathy Wahlbin at Interactive Accessibility

Specific topics

• Accessible Error Handling
• Writing Accessibly
• Accessible color systems
• Accessibility overlays do not work

Testing tools

Why test with people who have disabilities?

• Accessibility user testing: a cautionary tale by Daniel Pidcock outlines one example of what can happen when we assume that our work is accessible.

How to test

• Web Accessibility Testing: What Can be Tested and How by Karl Groves in September 2012 outlines what can be tested by automated systems and what requires a person (preferably with disabilities) to test. He also encourages people and companies to Do Automatic Testing First but not as the only thing you do.
• Considering accessibility when designing a usability test outlines ways to integrate accessibility testing into usability testing -- since if it's not accessible, it's not usable.
• Accessibility Testing Tools outlines information about testing code, such as how to use a screen reader and what automated tools are available.
• Accessibility In User-Centered Design: Recruiting Screener gives a detailed screener example

Accessibility & Mobile Design

• Mobile And Accessibility: Why You Should Care And What You Can Do About It by TJ VanToll at Smashing Magazine

Accessibility & Game Design

• Creating an accessible breakout game using Web Audio & SVG by David Roussett

anne’s Accessibility talks

• An Alphabet of Accessibility

Related topics

• Accessibility-related memes and humor
• Disability as Inspiration Porn
• Products mocked as “lazy” or “useless” are often important tools for people with disabilities by s.e. smith for Vox
• Cool stuff for blind, deaf, or non-verbal people (youtube)
• I am not broken: the language of disabilityby Bookworm Blues
• Overcompensating: Magical Erasure of Blindness in SFF

Accessible PDF files

Web Accessibility 101: Screen Magnification & Reflow in Acrobat Reader https://youtu.be/fCrZhnFrxjk

Additional Resources

• PDF Accessibility by WebAIM
• WAI-ARIA <-- this totally doesn't belong here but I'm not sure where to put it yet
• WebAIM Resources page