The web is about information accessibility
It's really a basic human freedom that we
are just really beginning to talk about in
the last decade. <ahm> It's important
therefore that everybody have this freedom
any freedom that's only allocated to a few
is not really a freedom.
The web is about information and <er> it's
important that people can access the
information that they need in order to
complete a workflow or get their job done
finish a task.
I think the web should be accessible to
everyone all the time. I grew up with it
being easily accessible to me.<Erm> It's how
I learnt information easily. <Erm>I can't
imagine someone not being able to just
google something instantly, and getting
what they need.
I think websites should be accessible<ah>
because...the web is founded kinda on this
idea of sharing information and if you
can't share information or if some people
can't see it , then it's not truly being shared.
<music>
We all have different abilities and
disabilities, and if we're all going to be
able to get the same content and interpret
it in a somewhat similar fashion, it has
to be given to us in that way and
accessible so that we can actually reach
it
Accessibility is important for a number of
reasons. <ah> For one, there are laws that
apply.<ah>Another is, it can relate to our
reputation. And a third is that<ah>by paying
attention to it, we create a more
inclusive educational environment.
I think we are really good as developers
at being...focusing on the 80% case.
Focusing on how do we make every 4 out of
every 5 of our users happy. How do we
build things for those group of people,
because the last 20% is always hard. But I
say that the web is for 100%. It's for
everybody, which is what Tim Burners-Lee
said.
I'm definitely am very moved by this
notion of inclusiveness. I mean I think
that, for me it's a part of who I...
this is important to me. But <erm> there's
also just the sort of, <erm> the notion of
of having everybody's contributions to the
sort of...the knowledge.
Big challenge is, to escape your own
viewpoint. And to not make the assumption
that everyone sees the web the way you see
it, on the device you see, <erm> the way
you use it. And so when you're creating
web pages, that's the biggest challenge,
is getting outside of where you're sitting.
The biggest obstacle to accessibility,
I think is...is pure knowledge.
It's really about putting yourself in the
mind of a person with disabilities.
A person who has, who has no motor skills
has no hands, has a lack of vision, has a
lack of hearing.<Ahm> May have a
cognitive disability. To be able to put
yourselves in their shoes and understand
how are they working with the thing that
I'm building or designing right now,
can they use it?
The alternative is, you build something
someone says "oh no it's not accessible!"
and so you go back and try to fix it but
you probably have been doing the wrong
thing at many places <ah> you know you may
have hundreds of images with no alt text,
you may have navigation that's very confused
or you are relying on libraries that...
<lady on headphones>open internet explorer
it's just that the technologies aren't
going to figure out. <Erm> And so that's
when someone says, it's too much, too
expensive, too much work. Well just do it
from the beginning and it'll...it'll probably
get a quality product with less work.
Accessibility is important to incorporate
earlier on because if you don't
incorporate it early on, you will
incorporate it later at greater expense,
with a certain amount of time you don't
have, with a certain amount of money you
don't have, to try to make it better.
Accessibility, unfortunately like
everything else in design and web design
has to be done from the very beginning.
So whether you're designing for different
devices, whether doing for different kinds
of human abilities, all those things have
to be thought of from the very beginning
and built into your concept of what your
your plan is. Of course nobody wants to
take time at the end. We're almost there,
we just want to get it out, and that's the
mistake many of us make. It's like
"I'll just get it out, then I'll go back and fix it."
No. Doesn't ever happen. There's always
a next project.
The first step in getting an accessible
site, is to work with the management, so
they understand the value of making it
accessible, and also helping them
understand that <erm> we can do pretty
much anything they want and be accesible.
If you just talk about accessibility, it
may not be immediately appreciated as
something important to do. But if you
start talking about quality and <ah> the
overlap of search engine optimisation and
accessibility and things of that nature
that...that will tend to get people's
attention more.
When I started, I was a designer and I
wanted to make things pretty. And you
don't think about anything besides the
aesthetics. And what I soon realised was
that when you have something that works