The MoT-rix: Accessibilitty for Beginners

The Ministry of Testing HQ have opened the doors to their chapters around the world to use their Crowdcast platform, this global network of virtual meetups has been dubbed The MoTrix!
(All presentations are recorded and made available for those who register)

This particular talk is:

Accessibility for Beginners

If your business has a publicly facing website, it should be usable for users with all sorts of accessibility needs. It is the fair, considerate, just, inclusive thing to do. We all want to do the right thing by society, right?

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are great but I have seen them regarded as optional rather than underpinning the design process for new websites. It's a complex area with a lot of nuance and can feel intimidating to those new to the subject.

So how do you get started in this area? In this talk, I go through my experiences in accessibility testing over the last 10 years, address some of the myths that prevail, cover how to persuade your peers to invest in accessibility, show what good accessible design looks like and give some practical advice on what to do if you have to retrospectively build in accessibility to an already live offering.

Key takeaways include:

• An understanding of what accessibility is

• How to advocate for accessibility

• An understanding of who benefits from accessible design

• Examples of the bad things that happen when accessibility is not considered (and how to avoid them)

• Understand what the WCAG accessibility guidelines are and how to use them in design and testing

• Develop the skills carry out an audit for accessibility on your own publicly facing website