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Accessibility

Web Accessibility Workshop

Published by O'Reilly Media, Inc.

Intermediate content levelIntermediate

Auditing websites for accessible design, code, and content to empower all users

Course outcomes

  • Learn the WCAG requirements for many basic aspects of web and application development, including UI design, HTML/CSS, and page content
  • Understand the benefits of accessibility and how it can improve the user experience for all users
  • Practice running an accessibility audit so that you can feel confident catching and correcting common accessibility mistakes

Course description

The thought of accessibility—especially testing for accessibility—can be intimidating. In reality, writing and testing accessible code requires only moderate adjustments to the development process. Any developer, from junior engineer to senior team lead, can do it.

Join expert Kathryn Grayson Nanz to take the mystery out of accessibility. You’ll examine foundational knowledge, vocabulary, and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) for common aspects of web design, code, and page content. You’ll run a step-by-step accessibility audit on your own website or application, reviewing the product for accessibility in multiple ways and brainstorming solutions for accessibility mistakes. By the end of the course, you'll feel empowered to start building accessible development into your existing processes and patterns at work.

What you’ll learn and how you can apply it

  • Conduct a basic accessibility audit
  • Correct common accessibility mistakes
  • Get buy-in from stakeholders on the importance of accessibility prioritization

This live event is for you because...

  • You’re a developer who knows you should be incorporating accessibility features into your products and testing for accessibility but aren’t sure where to start.

Prerequisites

  • Basic knowledge of HTML/CSS/JS

Recommended preparation:

  • Choose a website or application (your own or your workplace’s) or a publicly accessible website/application to run an accessibility audit on
  • Read Accessibility Handbook (book)

Recommended follow-up:

Schedule

The time frames are only estimates and may vary according to how the class is progressing.

What is accessibility? (20 minutes)

  • Presentation: The POUR principles (perceivable, operable, understandable, robust); categories of disability; benefits of accessibility
  • Group discussion: Your concerns about implementing accessibility features in your application or website; challenges you’ve faced when incorporating accessibility into your product
  • Q&A

Accessibility fundamentals (30 minutes)

  • Presentation: Common terms; using assistive technologies for accessibility testing; using tools in combination with assistive technologies to “walk a mile in the user’s shoes”
  • Hands-on exercise: Open a website or application that you’ve built, or a common application or website; implement at least one of the assistive technologies and suggestions to gain empathy regarding the experience of a user with a disability; note the challenges you encountered and what would have made it easier to use the website or application
  • Q&A
  • Break

Accessible design (30 minutes)

  • Presentation: Color, layout, and text considerations
  • Hands-on exercises: Choose a page and review the UI accessibility based on presentation topics; highlight places where the interface design accessibility falls short; note how you would correct the issues
  • Q&A

Accessible HTML (40 minutes)

  • Presentation: The accessibility tree and the DOM; the importance and advantages of semantic HTML; focus; understanding WAI-ARIA; page titles
  • Hands-on exercise: Choose a web page and review the HTML accessibility based on the presentation topics; highlight places where the code accessibility falls short; note how you would correct the issues
  • Q&A
  • Break

Accessible content (30 minutes)

  • Presentation: Images and alt text; text summaries; audio and video; animations; time limitations
  • Hands-on exercise: Choose a web page and review the content accessibility based on the presentation topics; highlight places where the code accessibility falls short; note how you would correct the issues
  • Q&A

Accessibility audit and the accessibility-first mindset (30 minutes)

  • Presentation: The accessibility-first mindset
  • Group discussion: Share challenges and observations about the websites you audited; How will you add accessibility into your daily work?
  • Q&A

Your Instructor

  • Kathryn Grayson Nanz

    Kathryn Grayson Nanz is a developer advocate at Progress with a passion for React, UI, design, and sharing with the community. She started out as a graphic designer and was told by her creative director never to let anyone know she could code because she’d be stuck doing it forever. She ignored his warning and has never been happier. You can find her writing, blogging, streaming, and tweeting about React, design, UI, and more on Twitter.

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