Developing for Accessibility

This talk was originally given at ThunderPlains Conf 2022 in Oklahoma City, OK, and then again on February 21, 2023 at OKC WebDevs.

In this talk, we’ll be talking about prioritizing accessibility when developing for the web. Despite what we envision, not every user is 100% comfortable as far as mental and physical capabilities go – and there’s no excuse for ignoring that. Building an accessible product almost always leads to a much more well-architected product – so it’s a win-win.

We’ll cover the tools and strategies you can use to aid users with visual, auditory, cognitive, and motor impairments. We’ll discuss contrast, colors, content, keyboard flows, screen readers, section 508 – as well as skip menus, the accessibility tree, hover and focus indicators, ARIA properties, and more.

There’s a lot that developers and designers can do to aid users with impairments – so let’s do it!