Session: Inclusive Development: Using Style Guides to Improve Website Accessibility

Date: Thursday, January 31, 2019
Time: 10:00 - 10:45 am (CST) (UTC-06:00)
Location: Room 3
Format: General Lecture Session

Session description

We all wear a lot of hats as digital web and app professionals. Depending on the client or company you work for, you may have multiple roles and responsibilities. How can we possibly add the digital accessibility hat on top of all that? What accessible pieces should we focus on? What do we do when a project does not have a lot of time or budget to include accessibility? One way we can tackle these issues is by using an accessible component-driven approach. By thinking about inclusiveness from the start, we can get a head start on accessibility while still building the required site components.

In late 2016, I developed an open-source KSS node style guide demonstrating good accessibility practices call the A11y Style Guide. The style guide comes with pre-populated accessible components that include helpful links to related tools and articles to make your site more inclusive. These components also serve as a guide for both HTML markup and CSS code, to inform designers, front-end and back-end developers at every stage of the website’s creation.

During this session, we will cover some generals about accessibility, what roles are responsible for accessibility, how to be inclusive in your design and development, then we will review some accessible patterns using the A11y Style Guide and others!
Session Outline
  • Digital accessibility 101
  • Everyone has a role to play
  • Inclusive design & development
  • Accessible patterns & components
  • Demo time!

Presenter

Carie Fisher

Headshot of Carie Fisher
Senior Accessibility Instructor and Developer, Deque Systems

Carie Fisher is a Senior Accessibility Instructor and Developer at Deque and has been building websites professionally since 2005. She is passionate about front-end development code and working creatively and effectively to meet all client needs. Carie is passionate about accessibility and promoting diversity in the tech world and is the creator of the Accessibility (A11Y) Style Guide and Accessibility (A11Y) Talks virtual meet-up, designer of the A11y Cats T-shirt, member of the A11y Project team, and past mentor for the OpenAIR Knowbility Challenge.

Sessions

  • General Lecture Session: Inclusive Development: Using Style Guides to Improve Website Accessibility