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Re: Front End Developers and ATs

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From: Alastair Campbell
Date: Aug 30, 2013 2:12AM

Thanks David, good to know.

Also, it would be fantastic if you could pop a reminder in your calendar
for 6 months from now, and let us know how it went?

It sounds presumptuous, but we (people on the list) rarely hear back from
people that we aren't actively involved with through work, so the long term
effects of this stuff are unknown when hands-off. It would be great to have
a short 6-months in story. E.g. "Most of the developers were fine with it,
but a couple tended to be the go-to people", or "it's now just part of the
process".

I get that sort of feedback from our clients, but we are more actively
involved there, so it's not the same.

Cheers,

-Alastair



On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 5:20 PM, David Ashleydale < <EMAIL REMOVED> >wrote:

> Wow, lot's of great feedback! I should have also said, though, that I
> didn't mean to just give JAWS to a developer with no accessibility
> training. The developers will already know how to code with accessibility
> in mind. I was just wondering if I should insist that they also use ATs in
> their work for when they are coding new things. Giving them ATs would also
> be accompanied by training in how to use the ATs, from the point of view of
> regular users of those ATs.
>
> But lots of great points above. I'm going to go write some of them down and
> let you know what we have so far as a recommendation.
>
> Thanks!
> David
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 3:55 AM, Alastair Campbell < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> wrote:
>
> > Steve Green wrote:
> >
> > > I agree that you need to be careful, so it is important to work with a
> > > variety of people [snip] However, even working with one person is
> better
> > > than not working with any, which is where almost every FED is right
> now.
> > >
> >
> > I guess this comes down to what we think a useful minimum is? I think we
> > agree that exposure is useful, but you need the macro view as well.
> >
> > Given little resource, what would we recommend for a front-end
> developer? I
> > would suggest:
> > - A training day on web accessibility, something fairly practical that
> > covers the different interaction styles. This should help with the big
> > picture view, and provide some basis for interpreting results.
> > - Whenever the organisation conducts usability / accessibility testing,
> > observing all the sessions (assuming it's done by other people).
> > - Adding things to their personal development plan (I guess most places
> > have those back-burner internal projects that people do for their own
> > development?), like assessing their own work against the guidelines, and
> > testing it with various AT.
> >
> > Any other useful, not too expensive things FEDs can do?
> >
> > -Alastair
> > > > > > > >
> > > >