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Good resources for accessibility in web design/development?
Hey there! Any web developers/designers out there that have resources on creating websites that are fully accessible? I am getting back into web development after a decade away and want to learn the correct way. Thanks for any tips!
The one thing I'd add is to supplement the WCAG guidelines with reading blog posts/discussions by accessibility practitioners on specific topics you're looking into. I don't have specific examples, I usually google the topic I'm interested in and can usually find something interesting.
These help me interpret the guidelines so I can better understand the rationale of why and not just the what. Through this, I can go beyond bare minimum requirements vs. creating a good, inclusive user experience.
I'd also suggest actually playing with a11y tools: Turn on voiceover/talkback on your phone, or download NVDA, to get a flavour of screenreader use. Or, navigate a website by keyboard only. A11y is more than just these of course, but they're fairly easily accessed examples IMO.
For what it's worth: I'm in UX, and have to consider accessibility requirements/copy in my work. I'm not the final accessibility expert by any means, but enjoy getting into discussions with the accessibility consultants I work with.
Awesome, thank you for the info! Looks like w3 is a good place to start.
Hey! I'm a mobile developer with a special interest in accessibility, so not exactly what you're looking for but I've studied a lot in those areas to get mobile guidelines.
W3C is a resource I've consulted a couple of times: https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/
I know my company's web devs use Deque University for training and guidelines as well, I think it's free but don't quote me on that.
Thank ya! I'll give the w3 guide a look. Deque University looks like it is not free, but will look into it as I get further down the rabbit hole.
You can do automated testing with Deque’s axe-core and there are some great linting tools build on top of it. Depending on your needs this is either an essential tool or completely overkill.
Another couple resources. For a quick scan of requirements, WebAIM's unofficial WCAG 2.1 checklist. Also, WebAIM contrast checker.
The gov.uk web platform is a shining example here, and a doubly impressive one given our government’s track record on… many other things. They do extensive primary research around accessibility and publish extremely detailed guidelines on their design principles. Anything on there should meet their fairly stringent accessibility policy as well as following a solid and well thought out set of general UX and usability principles. The entire platform is open source and they have a blog too.
My go-to handbook for accessible design (not just on the Web) came out of RGD and the Government of Ontario a couple of years back: https://www.rgd.ca/resources/accessibility/access
In addition to the other recommendations, I'd like to add Wave, also on WebAim.org: https://wave.webaim.org/
You can check a website's accessibility with the Wave extension yourself, or run a report on a site on that page.
But I would recommend reading up on the other sources first. Interpreting the report requires some knowledge.