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Re: Accessibility Development for Responsive Web Design

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From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Jun 23, 2014 9:43AM

Thad,

Making applications accessible across multiple operating systems, browsers, and assistive technologies can be very challenging. You will find that you will want to validate your accessibility techniques across all the variations before you implement them.

If you are using an existing framework for your responsive web work, you will probably want to test it on the variations to see how well it works today.

My own personal opinion is you are probably going to want to make a determination on which combinations you want to conduct accessibility testing on. Trying to make an application accessible across all possible combinations can be extraordinarily difficult--especially when you start looking at more complex user interactions.

You also will want to spend some times figuring out your approach. For example, there are no platforms, browsers, or assistive technologies that perfectly support all accessibility techniques. How will you deal with those situations?
[TSH]
For example, if the combination doesn't support something like aria-expanded, will you use a different older approach -- like off screen text or will you just adhere to the specification and file a bug.

This is just my own opinion. I think that responsive web can be a good thing and it possibly can make applications more accessible if done right. However, it doesn't necessarily equate to making the task of creating accessible applications easier. However, the challenges for accessibility on responsive web are not really all that different from the challenges that face a developer just trying to ensure the app works responsively.

Thanks,
Tim