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Re: for Chrome devs: intro to accessibility course

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From: Alastair Campbell
Date: Sep 12, 2013 10:05AM

Hi Karl,

I hope I didn't come across as vitriolic, perhaps I should have started by
saying "this seems like a good thing for Google to be doing, but..."?

It tweaks a nerve as it appears to be compounding some issues I see at the
moment.

There are two aspects to this, the main one is framing. It is called
"Introduction to web accessibility", so I suspect that in a few months I
will meet developers who say (or at least thinks) "I know all about
accessibility, I did the course from Google".

That would be great, if the breadth were wider, or if it acknowledged that
there were other audiences. (I know it isn't all up yet, but the syllabus
overview is, and part 1 of 4 is, so we have a pretty good idea.)

If it was called "Improving accessibility for blind people with Google's
developers tools" I wouldn't have thought to comment. It says roughly that
in the introduction, but doesn't acknowledge there is anything else,
therefore developers might not think there is more to it.

You can see the result of this type of thinking in questions on
Stackoverflow, for example:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18500035/can-blind-people-use-web-pages-that-utilize-mouse-events-for-interactions/18521958#18521958
I"m not being critical of the questioner, this happens a lot and is
self-perpetuating, and not helped when enforced by large organisations.

I agree that Google will reach more people than anyone else, great! But if
they do and it's a one-off thing, when do improvements get made?

That first issue that is easy to fix, just frame it properly and make sure
people are aware there is more to it.

The second issue is related to Denis' comment about a developer screen
reader vs user screen readers. If ChromeVox were using the API as Marco
suggested, I would not have thought to comment.

I have no problem with Google requiring it's own tools as part of the
course, I use them myself (barring ChromeVox, which I will try). I can see
that using ChromeVox in this scenario is very effective as it's cross
platform, and if it were framed as 'testing to check you are meeting the
standards' that would be fine.

However, the course (part 1 at least) implies that is all that's needed,
even basic keyboard access without having a screen reader is not apparent,
and it does appear to fit into part 1. It is also consistent with Google's
approach to accessibility in general.

So, apologies if I came across as vitriolic, I think it is a very welcome
step from Google. I'm just frustrated that it is likely to compound some
issues I run into all the time.

-Alastair