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
• Why Accessibility
• The Business Value of Accessible Software.
• Assistive Technology that Benefits Everyone.
• 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 WCAG Guidelines.

Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines ( ATAG Guidelines specify additional criteria for authoring tools (things that output HTML). ATAG Guidelines use the WCAG Guidelines as a backbone, so if your new blogging site or social media tool isn't WCAG compliant, it won't be ATAG compliant either.

• 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 anne m. gibson 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.

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