Creating inclusive and multilingual websites is complex but not without its benefits, especially to multilingual web users with disabilities. In Megan Jensen’s ‘kick off post’ on cultural inclusion she notes that “Undertaking a global multilingual website can be an intimidating and overwhelming project but it doesn’t have to be.” We’ve outlined specific ways to deliver […]
Digital Accessibility – Using a Screen Reader
I have heard many people say, “I’ll just download a screen reader and test that bug”. Using a screen reader takes time and practice to use in a similar way that a user with a disability would use the tool. It’s important to know the keyboard shortcuts as well as understanding how to use them […]
Accessibility Testing in the Product Development Lifecycle
Final installment of a 4-part series Recently I came across a comment from Lori Samuels, Senior Director of Accessibility at NBCUniversal, that stopped me in my tracks, “You can’t test your way to great user experience, you have to design your way there.” I completely agree. On the other hand, evaluating user experiences for accessibility […]
Perspectives on Achieving Digital Accessibility in the Healthcare Experience
Increasingly, topics like digital responsibility are entering the conversation around digital transformation. “This responsibility has evolved from primarily focusing on data privacy to now include accessibility, diversity, and inclusion as well. Really, it’s about being more proactive, less reactive. You want to take it from being aspirational to ground truth – how do we make […]
Help us Celebrate the 11th Annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day!
May 19, 2022 is the 11th anniversary of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). GAAD is an event to get everyone talking, thinking, and learning about digital access and inclusion. The day started with a single blog post written by a web developer, Joe Devon. An accessibility professional in Toronto, Jennison Asuncion, stumbled across the blog […]
Designing for Diversity: Accessibility in the Product Development Lifecycle – Part 3 of 4
Product teams should be keen to understand how people interact with digital content and media. For one, web users’ interactions with website content changes over time. Two, it changes by situation. And three, it changes by ability. For example, what a web user can do in her 20’s, such as navigating web pages with a mouse, […]
Updated Guidance on Americans with Disability Act – Ensure Website Content is Accessible
Today 1 in 4 Americans hit virtual roadblocks accessing web content simply because their capabilities, adaptive strategies or their assistive technologies are not considered during the design of digital experiences such as websites. How many website users in the U.S. could potentially be affected? There are 307 million internet users and 276.8 million mobile internet users in […]
Define Initial Requirements: Accessibility in the Product Development Lifecycle Part 2 of 4
Read Part 1 of this series here: Plan to be Accessible by Design: Accessibility in the Product Development Lifecycle. Forward-thinking product teams will plan for and implement inclusive user experiences at the start of the design process to achieve better outcomes. More commonly known as Shift Left, this method advocates ‘baking in’ inclusive user experience […]
Designing Accessible Digital Experiences Begins with Personas and User Stories
The disability market has hit an inflection point. More global organizations buying tech are committing to accessibility in 2022 due to pressure created by the increasing number of digital accessibility lawsuits, and the increasing number of firms creating diversity and inclusion programs (DE&I). This is creating competition for opportunities to attract the global disability market […]
On the Horizon WCAG 2.2: A New Standard for Interacting with the Web
We’ve been looking at The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Guidelines for several weeks, and we’re now rounding out this series by taking a close look at 5 of 9 WCAG 2.2 A, AA, and AAA Success Criteria. If you haven’t been following this series, the W3C released a working draft of WCAG 2.2 […]
The Powerful Link Between Accessibility, SEO, and Google
It’s long known that good accessibility is good for search engine optimization (SEO). However, most people think of this connection as being specific to implementing alt attributes on their images when the truth is far more involved and complex. In fact, a core measure of the quality of a website and its content is how […]
Get Ahead of Headings: How to Correctly Use Headings for Accessibility
Heading Overview For those that may not be familiar with heading levels, here is a quick run-down. Titles on your web page will have heading (<H>) tags to indicate their level of importance. Web developers use <H> tags for page titles to structure the content of the page. Not only are <H> tags used for […]