Slides from the A Bright Future for Web Accessibility talk given by Daniel Dafoe at a11yTO Camp in Toronto, Ontario on November 5, 2016.

1. A Bright Future for
Web Accessibility
by Daniel Dafoe

2. - Current state
- Future state
- What we can do today
Agenda

3. Tools of Today
Braille keyboards
Switch controls
Eye trackers
Browser extensions
Screen readers

4. The Bad: QA
- Manually test web pages using screen readers
- Only test with what’s available
- Improperly trained to test
- “If it works on one, it should be okay on others”

5. The Good: QA
- Tools and browser extensions to validate a web
page's accessibility
- Guidelines for how pages should be accessible
- Educated developers write better and easier to
test code

6. The Resources: QA
- https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/
accessibility-developer-t/
fpkknkljclfencbdbgkenhalefipecmb
- https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/wave-
evaluation-tool/jbbplnpkjmmeebjpijfedlgcdilocofh
- https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/

7. The Bad: UI/UX/IXD
- Biggest offenders (IMHO) of a11y
- Information not organized in a structural way
- Interactions typically don’t consider a11y
implications
- Unsure of how users with disabilities browse
the web

8. The Good: UI/UX/IXD
- Aware of users on many device sizes and
with pinch/zoom needs
- Following user stories for your not-so-typical
user
- Add users with disabilities to focus groups

9. The Resources: UI/UX/IXD
- http://www.adobe.com/ca/accessibility/
products/photoshop.html#validation
- https://medium.com/salesforce-ux/7-things-
every-designer-needs-to-know-about-
accessibility-64f105f0881b#.zfpze9l42

10. The Bad: Developers
- Large gaps in accessibility knowledge
- Accessibility is usually a retro-fit
- Less onus if company has own
operating team for a11y

11. Current State: Developers
- https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-
practices/
- https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/

12. The Future of Web
Accessibility

13. Future State: QA
- Automate a11y testing with
screen readers

14. Future State: UI/UX
- More plugins for latest and most popular
design and wireframing tools

15. Future State: Developers
- <details> and <summary>
- Web Components
- Accessibility API

16. Code Demo

17. “When do we start?”
- As early as possible
- Testers, start earlier
- Devs, write semantic code
- UI/UX/IXD, design universally

18. Recommended Reading
- https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-practices/
- https://www.marcozehe.de/
- http://www.heydonworks.com/
- http://webaim.org/

19. Wrap Up

20. Thank you
@danieldafoe
Code demo:
https://github.com/danieldafoe/a11yTO-code-demo