Integrating accessibility in the design process
By Ruth Ellison, 27 October, 2008
I've been a bit behind in posting about the fantastic Web Directions South 08 conference, which was held in Sydney in September 2008. I first started attending the conference back in 2004 where I experienced a great sense of 'home' and community. This year, I was given the opportunity to present about something I'm very passionate about - accessibility and the user experience.
The basis of the presentation is how we can develop accessible web products by takinga holistic approach to web accessibility. This means moving beyond the principles of web standards, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines andother accessibility guideline and looking at differentways of incorporating accessibility into the design process to produceaccessible and useful user experiences. My three key themes for the presentation were:
- Consider accessibility and usability right from the start
- Involve users throughout the process
- Accessibility is more than checklists and standards - it's about the people
It's about achieving a better understanding of how people interact with your products in the context of their day to day environments, which can be done via a range of user research techniques and testing/evaluation techniques.
You can check out the full presentation below.
