Kae Anderson, CPACC

When everyone on the team has accessibility knowledge, it means we can create inclusive work more quickly. That means work is less likely to have to be redone later, which helps the team move on to new work. Having an accessibility champions program and some introductory information during onboarding will help ensure everyone starts off with the same information.

Accessibility experts (like me!) can help teams think through different options to find ways to add inclusivity. When we get involved during the concept and design phases of a project, we can solve things at the wireframe stage. That means that lots of time and money will be saved compared to the costs of fixing things after they've been coded and deployed. Making things accessible is good for people and good for business, and we want to help!

When we're able to do research with people we find out how they experience the things they make, and that impacts how we continue to build. Companies like Fable allow us to do research with disabled people who can show us a new perspective on our work. And once we have that new perspective, we can integrate it into new work from the start.

Some people can get sick from motion, animation, or parallax scrolling, which means it's really important to think about what will happen when things move on our sites. And some people won't get sick, but they'll get distracted. Most of the time we have a goal for site visitors, whether it's getting someone to buy something, sign up for something, or learn about something. Giving people the option to stop all motion will make it so they can stay and do what they came there to do.

Designing for accessibility means everyone has the ability to use what we're making, and that's what we want! It can be easy to think that accessible design has constraints, but in reality it offers a framework that makes designs easier to use and more intuitive. Some design programs have accessibility tools integrated into them that can help. And companies like Fable allow us to do testing with people who have disabilities and might use assistive technology to interact with sites or apps. Fixing accessibility issues in the design stage is much quicker and cheaper than fixing them once they're coded, so checking things early helps us be more productive teams.

Designers can do some quick accessibility checks to make sure a wide range of people can use what you're making! It's important to check for color contrast (some design software has that built in, but otherwise a search will come up with multiple options). You can also check the grade level of the content you're using (Hemingway is a good tool for that). Other things to think about are: - Is all necessary info available (not hidden in an accordion) and above the CTA (not below it in tiny font)? - Do links and buttons have text that can be understood out of context (not "learn more" or "click here")? - Do all form fields have labels above the field (not just placeholder text)?