Intro to accessibility
What is accessibility?
Accessibility is the practice of making your websites usable by as many people as possible… You might also think of accessibility as treating everyone the same, and giving them equal opportunities, no matter what their ability or circumstances
We like this definition from MDN because it’s concise and straightforward. There are many other definitions and plenty of great resources for further learning but put simply, accessibility is ensuring your service is equally available and functional for everyone.
Don’t think of accessibility as a problem to be solved — although there’s plenty involved — it’s an important characteristic of your product or service.
Why should you care?
It’s the right thing to do. It’s difficult to quantify the value of your reputation or being on the right side of a topic, but we think it’s hard to refute this one.
It’s the law. You’re probably doing business in a region or industry with laws and regulations pertaining to accessibility. Check with your legal team or find a lawyer that can help you understand your obligations.
Accessibility issues are bugs, plain and simple.
If you’re an early stage startup building an MVP or trying to find product-market fit, move fast and break things; pivoting and responding to customers are your top priorities. That being said, leverage libraries, tools and best practices that provide speed, flexibility, and a layer of future-proofing that’ll prevent you from having to rewrite or refactor vast portions of your codebase later on.
If you’re a growth-stage company with traction and gaining market share, consider how improving accessibility can positively affect your credibility and penetration. It may distinguish you from the competition or help you level the playing field.
If you’re an established business or industry leader, it’s imperative that your interface is accessible for all of your employees and customers. Your reputation and legal obligations depend on the quality of your service.
It’s tempting but dangerous to equate or classify accessibility issues with tech debt — something you plan to pay down later. Tech debt is internal; it doesn’t immediately or directly affect the customer but accessibility issues often do. Suppose you run an e-commerce business but your customers can’t add items to their cart or check out. What effect would that have on your business? If 2-3% of your users are affected, that’s cause for concern; if it’s 20-30% of your users , that’s cause for alarm.
Who is involved?
Adopt the right mindset and equip your people with the best tools to infuse it into your process from ideation, planning, and design all the way to implementation and deployment.
Leaders prioritize accessibility and provides the necessary funding to focus on improvement. They instill the values and foster a culture that emphasize accessibility as an important aspect of the business.
Designers set a strong foundation with thoughtful branding and defining accessible constructs. They consider the complete user experience, and not just the aesthetics.
Product Managers consider accessibility a core value they want to deliver to customers and treat incoming issues according to their severity. They don’t allow accessibility issues to languish or disappear in the backlog.
Engineers use the best tools to detect and prevent accessibility issues early in development. Linting, type-checking, and testing detect issues before they reach code review.
Quality Assurance/Control ensures accessibility issues don’t reach end-users by enforcing automated checks and conducting manual reviews.
Clients and customers make clear why accessibility is an important expectation. This may include legal or constractual obligations to adhere to regional laws regarding the accessibility of the service.
Sales & Marketing understand the importance of accessibility and the role it plays in customer success.
Support Engineers efficiently identify, confirm, reproduce, and report accessibility issues that customers experience because they’re equipped with the right tools and knowledge to intake this category of bugs.
Legal is knowledgeable about the applicable accessibility laws and regulations in regions where your company does business. This is especially important if you plan to pursue FED/SLED business.
How do you get there?
The first step is to convince those around you that accessibility is an important area to invest in. Stay tuned for tips and pointers on how to initiate and drive that conversation.