The document discusses building accessible products and outlines some of the challenges and best practices. It notes that building software for everyone is difficult due to varying user needs and abilities. An agile development approach can help address changing requirements compared to traditional waterfall methods. The document recommends engaging with users to discover accessibility issues, conducting design audits, and involving stakeholders in the design process through participatory design. It also stresses the importance of ongoing learning about disabilities, guidelines, and tools to test accessibility. Finally, it acknowledges that convincing clients to prioritize accessibility can be challenging but provides some strategies around legal responsibilities, broader audiences, and cost savings.

2. WELCOME

4. Building accessible products
takes practice
Chris Wait - Director of Engineering @ Passio
chris@passio.co.uk - @chriswaitwhat

5. Passio are a digital agency.
We build technology to help people with disabilities.

6. Hard Problems

7. Hard Problems (1)
"Building software that works for everyone is hard."
Design is hard.
People have vastly different needs from technology
● Functionality
● Presentation / Interaction

8. "Building software that works for everyone is hard."
In 2015, roughly 1 in 3 software projects were completed
● On Budget
● On Time
● On Target
Software Engineering Practice can help: "agile" projects were about 2 times more likely
to succeed than "waterfall" projects
[Standish Chaos]
Hard Problems (2)

10. Our Practice
(in theory)

11. How our Practice looks (1)
Some key concepts:
1. A Backlog of tasks
2. Prioritised by the Product Owner, estimated by the team
3. Completed in Iterations

12. How our Practice looks (2)
Iterations: Each sprint (a week or two) we go through the following steps:
● Work on items from the backlog until they're done
● Completed items are tested by the Product Owner and released
● New items are added to the backlog as they're discovered
● Review priorities and re-order the remaining backlog items
A major win: We can adapt to changing requirements and priorities

13. Discovering
Accessibility
Issues

14. 1
Engaged Users

15. The Good:
● Your users know more than you about what they need
● Expert accessibility consulting
The Bad:
● A Bad Experience
● A lot of Bad Experiences?
(Your users can disagree with each other)
Your users tell you when you mess up
(sometimes)

16. Place a high value on your users' time
In my experience, they will love you for it
● They might keep teaching you
● They'll probably tell their friends
Be Responsive

17. Treat this feedback like any regular issue or feature request:
● Add them to the backlog
● Have a robust discussion about priorities
● Get them done
● Close the loop - get feedback from whoever raised the issue
In Practice

18. 2
Design & Audits

19. In Practice
"Accessibility First" - Carie Fisher
● Component-driven design
● Design for the ~25% of users with "Severe Difficulties", trickle down
Good entry-points for accessibility thinking:
● When designing your product's value proposition
● When designing a new feature
● When testing a feature or regression testing

20. Participatory Design
● Involve the stakeholders (especially users) in the design process
● Iterate with their support
● This is a whole other talk…
Auditing / User Testing
In Practice (2)

21. Build learning into your team's practice - spike, document, share
● Learn about design principles, UI & UX design
● Learn about disabilities, how they affect people's technology use
● Learn about accessibility guidelines (WCAG, HIG)
● Learn about the accessibility tooling available on your platform (VoiceOver,
TalkBack)
● Learn about accessibility auditing - manual and automated
Consider team specialisation, knowledge-sharing...
Learning

22. The Good:
● It's good to fix things before they break, before they go live
● When you're not firefighting, you can plan for larger, systemic fixes
● Broaden your UX thinking
The Bad:
● You don't know what you don't know
● Accessibility consultants are expensive
● Sometimes users can have a louder voice than designers
Good and Bad

23. One More Hard
Problem...

24. "Client management is hard"
Your clients are under pressure to continuously complete features and add value.
Can you convince them to value accessibility?
(After all, we can't all work for Neatebox)
Hard Problems (3)

25. 1. Value for money (clients generally love this)
● Cheaper to fix problems sooner rather than later
2. Reach a broader audience
● Approximately 11 million people in the UK have a disability
3. Corporate Social Responsibility
● Have a positive impact on the technology environment
Strategies

26. 4. Legal Responsibilities
● Public Sector: EU Directive on the Accessibility of Public Sector Websites and
Mobile Applications
● Disability Discrimination Act - (RNIB & BMIBaby)
● Karl Groves "List of Web Accessibility-Related Litigation and Settlements"
More Strategies

27. Some resources

28. Standish Chaos - https://www.standishgroup.com/sample_research_files/CHAOSReport2015-Final.pdf
WCAG 2.1 - https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/
HIG Accessibility - https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/accessibility
Accessibility First (Carie Fisher) - https://www.24a11y.com/2017/accessibility-first/
RNIB - Tech Resource Hub - https://www.rnib.org.uk/practical-help/technology/resource-hub
Cool stuff to read

29. Thanks for coming.
You're all fantastic.

31. Approaching accessibility
testing
Iris Winter
Frontend Developer at Modulr
I am a frontend developer with a passion for accessibility.
Currently working in fintech but coming from an agency
background where I focused on raising awareness, educating
clients and developers to help small to large businesses reach an
inclusive audience

32. Automated / Scripted testing tools
https://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/tools/ - Collection of tools that test websites for WCAG standards

34. Codesniffer
https://squizlabs.github.io/HTML_CodeSniffer/

35. What do these tests cover?
http://squizlabs.github.io/HTML_CodeSniffer/Standards/WCAG2/

36. How do the results align with UAT?

37. A client’s experience

38. Focusing on user testing
- Defining the target audience
- Defining clear user journeys
- Including a diverse user group in the testing process
- Testing early and with prototypes

39. Simulate user testing for accessibility
- Completing user journeys using a screen-reader (Jaws & NV Access)
- Completing user journeys using keyboard input only
- Simulating colour vision deficiency Chrome Plugin
- Disabling CSS
- Changing the browser font-size
- Zooming
- Completing user journeys with an understanding and awareness for
accessibility needs

40. User testing a website
with a screen reader

42. What is the user journey?
What kind of website or tool is
being tested?

44. Running the tests

45. Thanks

46. BREAK TIME

48. © 2019 Neatebox SIGNA11Y - Discussing Accessibility

49. © 2019 Neatebox SIGNA11Y - Discussing Accessibility

50. © 2019 Neatebox SIGNA11Y - Discussing Accessibility

51. © 2019 Neatebox SIGNA11Y - Discussing Accessibility

52. © 2019 Neatebox SIGNA11Y - Discussing Accessibility

53. © 2019 Neatebox SIGNA11Y - Discussing Accessibility

54. © 2019 Neatebox SIGNA11Y - Discussing Accessibility

55. © 2019 Neatebox SIGNA11Y - Discussing Accessibility

56. © 2019 Neatebox SIGNA11Y - Discussing Accessibility

57. © 2019 Neatebox SIGNA11Y - Discussing Accessibility

58. © 2019 Neatebox SIGNA11Y - Discussing Accessibility

59. © 2019 Neatebox SIGNA11Y - Discussing Accessibility

61. Web accessibility is the inclusive
practice of ensuring there are
no barriers that prevent interaction
with, or access to, websites on
the World Wide Web by people
with disabilities.
“

63. Starting the conversation

64. Raising awareness
● Presentations

65. Raising awareness
● Presentations

66. Raising awareness
● Presentations
● Workshops

67. Raising awareness
● Presentations
● Workshops
● Global Accessibility Awareness Day

68. Disable Javascript Improve accessibility on
the project you are
working on
Use only a keyboard for
an hour to navigate the
web
Use the Funkify
Simulator
Use VoiceOver for an
hour
Share something new
you have learned on
accessibility channel
Scroll through twitter
using VoiceOver
Accessibility Quiz Disable image
Raising awareness

69. Creating a team
● Idea session
● Set up slack channel
● Organise resources

72. Q&A