Elizabeth Galle tweeted a request today for accessibility references that a team of not-necessarily tech savvy people would get some use out of. Twitter responded with some great links almost immediately, and I wanted to collect those replies here in one place to serve as a starting point for any others with similar needs.
The tweet that started it off:
I need to brief team on what accessibility is and how we can improve our sites.Can you recommend any references for non-tech people?
— Elizabeth Galle (@drinkerthinker) October 20, 2011
@Tawreh makes an excellent point that web accessibility can be likened to a book, and that you should give your readers a sense of “I know where things are” immediately rather than trying to reinvent the wheel and inevitably confusing them (or frustrating them to the point that they just give up).
@drinkerthinker compare it to a book: you know where to find things in a book, you want to have the same experience with a website
— Sophie S-K (@Tawreh) October 20, 2011
@drinkerthinker like with a book, you know the contents are at the front, the page numbers tell you where you are, and so on ?
— Sophie S-K (@Tawreh) October 20, 2011
Others presented links to basic guidelines from the W3C and WebAIM groups, the authoritative sources for web usability and accessibility. The WebAIM website in particular is quite aesthetically dated, but still packs a lot of very useful information:
The internet has the potential to revolutionize disability access to information, but if we’re not careful, we can place obstacles along the way that destroy that potential and which leave people with disabilities just as discouraged and dependent upon others as before.
@drinkerthinker This section from the Web Standards Curriculum might be useful w3.org/wiki/Accessibility_basics
— Anna Debenham (@anna_debenham) October 20, 2011
@drinkerthinker Check out the resources from the good folks at WebAIM.org
— Angela Colter (@angelacolter) October 20, 2011
@drinkerthinker Also check out angelacolter.com/tools-for-conducting-an-accessibility-review/ if it’s web people
— Kevin M. Hoffman (@kevinmhoffman) October 20, 2011
Statistics! Numbers! Proof that there’s actually good reason to pay attention to accessibility practices. The information is a few years old, but it’s still valid as a means of saying this matters to real people. It’s not just us web people coming up with new things to preach about.
@drinkerthinker Here are a few stats on how many people benefit from better accessibility: http://joeclark.org/access/webaccess/JVoluntAdmin.html
— Jason Robb (@jasonrobb) October 20, 2011
Max references the bible of web design:
@drinkerthinker zeldman third edition — the accessibility is very good.
— Max Fenton (@maxfenton) October 20, 2011
Sadly, not all web resources live forever.
@drinkerthinker Did anyone archive diveintoaccessibility.org? That used to be my old standby.
— Ethan Marcotte (@beep) October 20, 2011
@drinkerthinker diveintoaccessibility.info is a bit dated, but it’s still a great starting resource.
— Ethan Marcotte (@beep) October 20, 2011
Social bookmarking to the rescue!
@drinkerthinker Try some of these: pinboard.in/u:garrettc/t:a… especially northtemple.com/2009/03/24/accessibility-to-the-face
— Garrett Coakley (@garrettc) October 20, 2011
And Angela points out that Twitter itself is a great place to find a11y information and discussions:
@drinkerthinker See also w3.org/WAI/ For non-tech people, I would focus on how #a11y problems affect people, not on checklists.
— Angela Colter (@angelacolter) October 20, 2011
I don’t have anything in particular to add to this, except to say that this is a topic not nearly enough web designers and developers pay attention to. Just because someone has a disability of some kind doesn’t mean they aren’t using the web, and just because someone’s using the web doesn’t mean they don’t have some kind of need that would benefit from even basic accessibility practices.
Keep that in mind.
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