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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