Resources for Accessibility in the Web
Desiree Bradish
I have compiled a list of places to go for more learning for improving Accessibility as you develop. I recommend placing Accessibility in your team's working agreement, and in every definition of done.
My personal favorite resource has been Marcy Sutton's accessibility training. My company sent me to several Accessibility training courses she offered, and I have access to her self-guided training through the link above. She's a developer who is passionate about Accessibility. Her classes feel very natural and are much more practical than theoretical.
Below are a 📚 collection of resources I have gathered over the last year as a developer. I will try and keep this updated as I go.
Standards in Accessibility
W3C Accessibility Fundamentals
Deque Accessibility Webinar on WCAG & Section 508
WCAG
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines ( WCAG) are part of a series of web accessibility guidelines published by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the main international standards organization for the Internet.
W3C has recently announced that WCAG 2.2 is scheduled to be completed and published in Q3 2023.
The content for WCAG 2.2 has been finalized and WCAG 2.2 W3C Candidate Recommendation Snapshot was approved for publication in January 2023.
Every year WebAIM runs accessibility evals on the homepages of the top 1 million sites. This is using the WAVE-standalone API
Great Overviews 🏫
WebAIM offers training in the accessibility basics. This is a very thorough overview of Accessibility and the Web.
W3.org Free Foundations Course
Be sure to check out their resources page
Screen Readers 🖥️
2019 WebAim Screen reader survey
The Results:
NVDA + Chrome is the most popular combination of tools used.
Learn NVDA
Voice Over + Safari are the second most popular combination of tools.
Learn Voice-Over on Mac
VoiceOver gestures on iOS
JAWS (Paid $$$)
Learn Jaws
ARIA 👩💻
Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) is a set of roles and attributes that define ways to make web content and web applications (especially those developed with JavaScript) more accessible to people with disabilities. - MDN
Authoring Practices: Patterns utilizing ARIA
Learning Resources 🎓
$ = Paid
Marcy Suttons Accessibility webinars
Marcy’s Accessibility online training $
Deque is a leader in the Accessibility space
Their Digital Accessibility Training $
The Axe-Con video archives
W3.org Free Foundations Course
Many free resources and information
Overlays ⛔
There are many accessibility overlay options, should you be tempted to use them, please refer to this overlay fact sheet. Generally speaking overlays are not encouraged.
User Testing Resources 👥
Real Testing with persons with disabilities
Use Fable
Use Access Works
Webtools & Extensions 🕸️
Automatic tests are wonderful but you should not rely solely on those below. Work to build a real understanding of the disabilities you are likely to encounter and view your project through those lenses.
Deque’s AXE chrome extension
Accessible Brand Colors: A very cool app that tells you if you’re brand colors meet accessibility contrast requirements when used in combination.
Color Blindness Simulator for Chrome
Subscribe to my newsletter
Read articles from Desiree Bradish directly inside your inbox. Subscribe to the newsletter, and don't miss out.
Written by