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Accessibility: Adding "Why" to the "How"

by Cameron MacDonald | at Minnebar 19

Join us as we go through examples of accessibility informing usability and becoming a daily tool for people around the world. We will also walk through what it means for a website to be accessible and ways we can approach solving usability issues for websites. We will even explore some real-world accessibility problems and solutions!

The overall goal of this talk is to help you understand the context behind accessibility, how we approach thinking about accessibility concerns, why accessibility matters outside of compliance reasons, and how everyone, not just individuals with disabilities, benefits from accessible design.

Details:

Accessibility has recently become a more prudent topic given policy changes, both for and against. A noteworthy piece of legislation, the European Accessibility Act (EAA), will be going into effect in June, 2025.

However, we're not here to just talk compliance. Accessibility efforts generally benefit everyone, not just individuals with disabilities. Seeing individuals with disabilities as "a problem to solve for" often results in quick fixes and temporary solutions. Individuals with disabilities are users, just like every other person who uses an application. Users, both with and without disabilities, have their own unique perspectives and needs that they bring to an experience.

If you're only focused on bare minimum compliance to standards, such as WCAG, you're missing out some big things:

  • Better understanding who you serve
  • Benefitting everyone you serve, regardless of background
  • Learning more about how assistive technologies interpret HTML and its semantics
  • Discovering new tools for testing and ensuring accessibility
  • Gaining a better appreciation for how some of our everyday tools and designs came from accessibility

Join and help us build a better, more inclusive industry!

NOTE

This talk will be mainly focused on digital accessibility. There may be some aspects of physical accessibility discussed, mainly as examples.

This talk presumes you know at least a tiny bit about web development, but not a ton. I will talk about some technical aspects such as DOM, semantic HTML, attributes, CSS, and others. I will do my best to keep it as beginner-friendly as possible.

All levels

Cameron MacDonald

Cameron is a front-end developer who works on design systems. He finds joy in bridging the gap between visual design and software engineering; artistic creativity and practical problem solving.

He is also a Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) through the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP). He is working on gaining the experience necessary in order to qualify to take their Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS) certification as well.

When he's not ripping his hair out trying to fix bugs he definitely didn't create, you can find him doing one of his many hobbies that he can't seem to stop picking up. These include skiing, cycling, illustration, animation, 3D printing, smart home automation, playing guitar and piano, and more.

Cameron is also the current Vice President of Nice Moves MN, a volunteer-run organization that hosts events, mixers, and more for animation, motion graphics, VFX, and other moving picture professionals in Minnesota and its surrounding neighbors.

You can find all of his socials at cdmacdonald.com

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