Amelia Abreu, UX Night School
Accessibility is a fundamental tenet of quality software, but it’s a topic that is frequently misunderstood or de-prioritized in the development process. What’s more, accessibility is the law! The 2018 Revised 508 Standards Refresh from the ADA sets new compliance requirements for technology vendors and contractors working with Federal, State, and local government agencies, and across sectors including finance, healthcare, education and e-commerce.
This workshop provides an introduction to digital accessibility standards and practices, and gives participants hands-on experience with assessing, testing and implementing accessibility practices in the software development process.
We’ll start by understanding what accessibility entails, then defining the business case for developing accessible applications. Then, we’ll dive into the technical details with a straightforward overview of the new 2018 Revised 508 Standards (the first major update since 2001) and the latest accessibility standards from the W3 WCAG.
Then, we’ll work in small groups to deploy accessibility testing hands-on and review aXe-core, an automated accessibility testing framework for web applications.
Finally, we’ll reconvene, share our progress and findings and develop plans for implementing accessible development in our day-to-day work.
When the workshop is completed, the attendees will be able to:
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- Advocate for accessibility in the software development process
- Understand compliance levels and requirements under the 2018 Revised 508 Standards
- Deploy manual and automated accessibility tests
- Create a strategy for implementing accessibility requirements
- Learn further and lead the discussion on accessible development principles in their teams
Amelia Abreu, 2018 Workshop, Abstract
