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Enable: Accessible Web Components to Use and Learn From

taught by: Zoltan Hawryluk

Session Summary

Many web developers want to create accessible websites and web applications, but don’t know how to create them or where to find accessible components to use in their work. In this session, you will learn about Enable, which is not only a code library of accessible components, but also a place to learn what makes them work with keyboards, screen readers, and other assistive technology.

Description

If you are a web developer, you have probably used open-source code libraries in your projects that claim to have been built with accessibility in mind. However, using them in your own work, you often realize that:

  • They are not really accessible at all.
  • They were not tested with a screen reader correctly.
  • They were not tested with a keyboard only.
  • They are accessible for desktop devices, but not mobile.X.
  • Tey use ARIA in inappropriate ways.
  • They are no longer maintained and/or haven't been updated in years.

As a developer, an accessibility specialist and a web architect with 20+ years’ experience, I have been asked many times to teach developers how to make accessible web work. I have also been asked for recommendations for pre-made open-source components are available for developers to use. After answering these questions repeatedly, I decided to put this information on Enable, a place where web developers can download accessible code, and learn why it is accessible.

This talk will also discuss how the accessibility and development communities can contribute code and ideas to Enable so it can improve and grow to be an important web resource for all web professionals.

Enable is available at https://www.useragentman.com/enable/

Practical Skills

  • Developers will learn not only how to use the Enable components in their work, but how to use its code walkthroughs to learn why the components are accessible and apply this knowledge to their own work.
  • Accessibility Specialists and Architects will learn how to cut down their auditing time by being able to point to the Enable code walkthroughs to show developers how to fix the code in their own projects.
  • QA professionals will be able to compare the work on their project with the Enable components and understand if there are any missing accessibility features in their work.