Why We Want to Buy the Magician and Not the Assistant
taught by: Kylie Pollock
Session Summary
So a magician and his assistant walk into a bar….
When it comes to magic everyone seems to believe that the flashy lady assistant does all the work. She draws us in and then… poof. Disappears in smoke. She is so attention seeking and dazzling that we miss what is happening with the magician, the one who brainstorms the magic, tests the magic, and delivers the magic.
A magician can work magic on his own. An assistant cannot. So why does everyone get sucked in and buy the assistant? Why are we buying accessibility assistants AKA Overlays, and when we unknowingly purchase an underperforming overlay, how can we get the magic back?
Description
In this session we will discuss how digital accessibility can sometimes feel like magic. We see it, we like it, but we don’t know how the magician made it happen.
We will discuss the purpose of overlays and yes, it is an unpopular opinion, but they can have a place at the accessibility table. (Hear me out, please don’t lynch me yet).
How do we recover from a poorly performing overlay? Like a beautiful assistant who ran off into the night with half the magician’s tricks and no knowledge how to work them. How do we make the assistant disappear so we can get down to making magic. The magic of real accessible code.
In this session we will teach how to
• Level up your disappearing act and vanish the overly flashy assistant
• Duplicate your stakeholders’ money
• Establish ticketing booths, gatekeepers and the standard admin you need to ensure the show goes on.
• How to reach the final act, where we “wow the audience” and pull an accessible product out of a hat.
Practical Skills
- Attendees will have a better understanding of what an overlay is, what it does and what it does not do, as well as determining the best investment to provide a solid return to their stakeholders and organisation.
- Recognise patterns (and anti-patterns), from overlays and “one code wonders” to establishing design systems and sound accessibility processes.
- Recover from the pesky assistant, identify how to work the accessibility magic and ensure the show goes on.