WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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Re: Screen Readers as a Development Tool for Web Developers

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From: Bryan Garaventa
Date: Jul 17, 2015 2:34PM

Granted, this is typically a resource issue. I also wrote an article about this at
https://www.linkedin.com/grp/post/4512178-5921880667464941572
(Who is best qualified to understand web accessibility?)

However it is equally unscalable to expect all developers to ignore how ATs work and at the same time expect that the software they build will somehow become more accessible automatically. Only through education and cooperation can this happen effectively.

There was a discussion about this to at
https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-pfwg/2015May/0029.html

It is also just as easy to go down the rat hole of saying that, because most developers aren't properly trained now, they never will be.

Education has to start somewhere, and now we have some very good resources that are specifically dedicated for this purpose for engineers.

It cannot be helped if people don't want to learn, however for educators teaching programming, there is no reason why this can't be included within the curriculum for this purpose.
E.G https://www.linkedin.com/grp/post/4512178-5986846570295877633

Additionally, collaborative projects such as the following
http://whatsock.com/training/matrices/
make it easier to understand basic role hierarchy mappings and how these map into the latest ARIA 1.1 standard.

Becoming more knowledgeable about accessibility is becoming easier, but others need to step up as well, both in the academic sector for the education of future engineers, as well as individual engineers wishing to remain relevant by updating their skill sets as modern technologies evolve. Accessibility is a coding discipline like any other.

For instance, as 'accessibility' as it relates to the Accessibility API on platform operating systems is updated frequently, as the ARIA 1.1 standard is being worked on to make these mappings more secure, and as ATs use these new technologies to provide better experiences for users, all of these are considered as evolving technologies that are relevant to the skill sets of current and future engineers; who need to understand how they work together in order to see how to make them work better within their software.

We can continue to build these new powerful technologies forever, but as long as these developments are ignored as being beneath the notice of the educational process for those implementing them, and engineers feel that it's too hard to figure it out, accessibility will never be scalable.

So for this to work, three things need to happen,
(1) operating systems and browsers and ATs need to integrate together better,
(2) conformant coding practices and Assistive Technology familiarization needs to be a standard part of the educational process for engineers within academics,
and (3) current engineers need to use these training materials to become stronger in the field.

These things are time consuming and hard at first, but it does get easier as common knowledge spreads. It's also important for companies to step up and provide the time and funding necessary to train their developers as well. Often it's not the lack of valuable materials for training that are at play, but rather, the unwillingness of the business department to see the point in allowing it.

Insufficient understanding does far more harm in the long run than any other type of issue in development.