A Developer’s Guide to Getting Started in Accessibility: How to Find Resources, Avoid Pitfalls, and Do Good Work
taught by: Alicia Evans
Session Summary
An anecdotal account of one developer’s journey toward making websites accessible.
Description
Two years ago the company I was working for tasked me with the responsibility of making their websites accessible. I was overjoyed! Accessibility has always been something I’ve felt passionately about. But beyond alt text for images, I didn’t know much about how to make websites accessible. I thought it would be simple.
Even when you want to make websites accessible, there’s a lot to learn and a lot to navigate. This class takes a look at how I tackled the task of learning about accessibility and the problems I encountered along the way.
This class is best for people just beginning their journey toward web accessibility. You can learn from my mistakes and successes and hopefully get a good head start.
I will be covering:
- How to choose learning materials that work for your learning style. Don’t like reading straight documentation? Neither do I.
- Finding your tools and developing a process that works for you.
- The mistakes you’ll make with a screen reader.
- How you’ll want to use ARIA for everything, and you absolutely shouldn’t.
- How to unlearn your bad developer habits (in terms of accessibility, anyway).
- How to promote accessibility with other developers, designers, content managers, and everyone else.
Practical Skills
- How to find resources for your learning style
- Easy mistakes to make and how to avoid them
- How to unlearn inaccessible developer habits