There is a way to improve your SEO, social media shares, and site performance while increasing your audience, preventing errors and future-proofing your website.
The tools and techniques that make your web content accessible to users with disabilities are all based around open standards. If you make your website compliant with legal accessibility requirements (like the AODA - link opens in a new tab) and standards like WCAG 2.0 - link opens in a new tab, you're also making your website easier for Google and Facebook to work with, and easier for more devices and browsers to load.
Beyond that, 1 in 5 Canadians have a disability. Making sure you don't create barriers for people is a big responsibility, but it doesn't need to be difficult. Find out how you can make your website or coding skills better.
I've been a web developer in Toronto for nearly 10 years. I started, like so many of us, by hacking my band's MySpace theme.
I followed some of my bandmates into Humber's Web Development program, and went on to work for a variety of ad agencies. I worked on campaigns for major brands like McDonald's and Chevrolet (and coded HTML emails for George Michael - yes, the George Michael).
My specialization in accessibility began while working with the Bank of Montreal, where, during my four years there as a Senior Software Developer, I became the accessibility Subject Matter Expert. I left BMO 2018 to teach Accessibility & Usability at Humber College.
I've been a fan of the internet since 1993, when I made my first post on an X-Files BBS. Despite Mulder & Scully's multiple - link opens in a new tab negative experiences - link opens in a new tab, I believe in the principles of the open web - link opens in a new tab, as interoperability is the foundation of accessibility.
ARIA is one of the most neglected aspects of accessibility, and one of the most important! Let’s learn the basics of supplementing our native semantics with ARIA attributes. Read more about ARIA...
Billions of emojis are used every single day. Today we’ll look at how you can make them accessible to everyone 🏆 Read more about emojis...
We work on an open platform. The beautiful thing about the internet is that it is a (nearly) global public space built on open access (e.g. Net Neutrality), open standards and open specifications. This comes with the responsibility, that you create services that are meant to be consumed by clients you aren’t familiar with, some that haven’t even been invented yet. Read more about the open web...
Accessibility isn’t just for developers. Meeting WCAG requirements has to be a team effort, and content is no exception. This is also a great way to get SEO wins, while improving your accessibility!Read more about accessible content...
There are lots of options in front-end code for controlling visibility, including native attributes, CSS property values, and helper classes from popular front-end libraries like Bootstrap, Foundation and HTML Boilerplate. It can be tough to remember which option shows or hides things for whom. Here’s a little cheat sheet and demo to help! Read more about visibility...
Accessibility is one of those things that is never ‘done’. It’s a principle. If accessibility (digital or otherwise) is something you want to know more about, let’s take a moment to look at where to start.Read more about where to start...
WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind) is a non-profit run out of Utah State University's Center for Persons with Disabilities, and is one of the most respected resources for Web Accessibility. Check out their 'Intro' to get started.
The Mozilla Developer's Network is, for my money, the best source of documentation on the web. Their accessibility docs are no exception.
Most accessibility legislation draws directly from the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. They are not an easy read, but I highly recommend reading at least a portion of them to get a sense of what you're working towards.
Chrome's Lighthouse auditing tool not only lets you check accessibility concerns through dev tools, but can also run as a CLI or Node module, meaning you can make it a part of your linting and build process.
WebAIM's WAVE tool let's you check a page either through their site or using one of their browser extensions.
By definition, there's no out-of-the-box solution for linting ARIA, as it's meant to fill in semantic gaps in the HTML spec. You can definitely set up custom linting for your own projects, or get your team familiar with the ARIA spec, though. The A11Y Project is a great place to start!