Know About Accessibility

  • Colorful mosaic of a tree with swirling branches, surrounded by birds, butterflies, and flowers against a vibrant blue and yellow background.

    All of us should know about accessibility.

    Welcome to Know About Accessibility. We’re happy you’re here! We are Sarah Horton and David Sloan, co-authors of the book, What Every Engineer Should Know About Digital Accessibility. We created this website to support and extend the themes and topics from the book. All of us have a role to… continue reading

  • Speech Disabilities

    By Sarah Horton and David Sloan — Some people have disabilities that affect speech, specifically the ability to produce speech that other people (and machines) can understand. This includes conditions that may cause: Some conditions, such as certain brain injuries, anxiety, or hearing loss, may result in a temporary or… continue reading

  • Illustration of Steven, a man with light skin and short dark hair, at a table on a call speaking sign language through a tripod-mounted smartphone. There are design tools in a holder and scattered on the table, and a large sheet of paper.

    Steven: Deaf graphic artist and ASL speaker

    An accessibility persona from A Web for Everyone — The nice thing about being a graphic artist is that most of the time his work can speak for itself. My only disability is that everyone doesn’t sign. When he first started working, most reviews were done in meetings, but more… continue reading

  • Those who have been marginalized get it.

    By Jonee Meiser — All too often, I run into development teams that continuously treat accessibility solely as technical bugs that they will address whenever they get to them. The impact of those existing bugs is perceived as minimal. And that is when I have been known to lose my… continue reading

  • Illustration of Trevor, a young man with light skin and shaggy brown hair, at a table studying the screen of a tablet device with his head in his hand. Four pencils are arranged neatly on the table.

    Trevor: High school student with autism

    An accessibility persona from A Web for Everyone — Trevor is a bright 18-year-old who plays games and watches music videos on his laptop. He lives at home with his parents and younger sister. He attends a special school where the teachers and staff can help with his social and… continue reading

  • Illustration of Vishnu, a man with dark skin, short beard, and short dark hair, at a desk working control knobs on an engineering device. There are two monitors, a large-print keyboard, and desktop magnifier on the desk.

    Vishnu: Engineer, global citizen with low vision

    An accessibility persona from A Web for Everyone — These days, Singapore is a center of the world, and Vishnu is one of its global citizens. After graduating from one of India’s technology colleges, he went to a postgraduate program at the National University of Malaysia. His work on visualizing… continue reading

  • Visual Disabilities

    By Sarah Horton and David Sloan — Some people have disabilities that affect the visual channel and are not fully correctable through glasses or contact lenses. The impact may range from loss of functional vision to reduced visual acuity, field of vision, or color perception.  Low vision and sight loss… continue reading

  • You can’t rely on testing tools. They can test only 20%–30%.

    By Makoto Ueki — We need to clarify the accessibility requirements that the content should ensure in the requirements definition phase. Then we design and develop the content following the requirements. Once the content is developed, we need to verify that it meets the requirements set forth in the final… continue reading

  • You need to bake layers of accessibility testing into your process. 

    By Kate Kalcevich — Accessibility testing is critical to ensure that what you build will work for all users. This includes people with disabilities and people with temporary and situational limitations. For example, both having low vision or being outdoors on a sunny day makes color contrast more important.  Layering… continue reading