Web accessibility consultant

How The Book on Accessibility can help:

• Program guidance
• Team reviews
• Technical expert
• Vendor review

Program Guidance:

Navigating the complexities of a large enterprise can be a challenging task, especially in a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) environment. If you're unsure where to start, it's important to recognize that within such an environment, there are often multiple products, workflows, and external partnerships to consider. This can make finding a clear path forward seem overwhelming. However, there are proven principles that can help you embrace ambiguity and formulate a plan to navigate this complexity.

Here's how I can assist in this situation:

• Clarifying Ambiguity: I can help you make sense of the volatile and uncertain aspects of your enterprise. By analyzing your current situation, understanding your goals, and assessing your resources, I can provide guidance on where to begin and how to prioritize efforts.
• Strategic Planning: We can work together to create a strategic plan that takes into account your unique enterprise challenges. This plan will include actionable steps to help your organization find traction and make progress, even in the face of ambiguity.

Not Sure Where to Go Next:

Even with expert guidance, it's common for the workload to still feel overwhelming. In such cases, it's essential to develop strategies for efficiently utilizing your resources and identifying areas where you can have the most significant impact.

Here's how I can help:

• Resource Optimization: We can analyze your current resources, whether they are human, financial, or technical, and devise strategies to allocate them more effectively. This includes identifying areas where you can make the most significant impact with the resources you have available.
• Accessibility Impact Assessment: By examining your current initiatives and projects, we can prioritize them based on their potential to drive positive outcomes. This approach ensures that you focus on efforts that matter most.

Not Sure What to Measure:

In the context of compliance and accessibility, it's essential to move beyond just setting policies. Measuring your enterprise's commitment to accessibility can be a complex task, particularly in cases like WCAG 2.2 compliance.

Here's how I can assist with this challenge:

• Holistic Accessibility Measurement Approach: We'll work together to identify key performance indicators and metrics that go beyond simple compliance checks. These metrics will provide a comprehensive view of your accessibility commitment and its impact on users.
• Data Collection and Analysis: I can help you set up systems for data collection and analysis to track your accessibility initiatives' effectiveness over time.

Not Sure Why It's Not Working:

If your organization has the necessary policies and resources for accessibility but still faces challenges in implementation, it's crucial to examine your program and communication strategies.

Here's how I can support you in this scenario:

• Accessibility Program Evaluation: I'll conduct a thorough review of your accessibility program, including policies, procedures, and implementation strategies. We'll identify bottlenecks and areas for improvement.
• Leadership and Communication Strategy: We'll explore how leadership within your organization can be leveraged to champion accessibility and ensure its adoption. Effective communication strategies will be developed to create awareness and buy-in among all stakeholders.

Team Reviews:

Understanding how your products are being built and assessing your enterprise's commitment to accessibility is vital. This can be achieved through various methods such as self-surveys, interviews, deliverable reviews, and vendor assessments.

Here's how I can assist in this area:

• Data Collection: I can help design and implement data collection methods, which may include self-surveys, interviews, and vendor assessments. This data will provide insights into your enterprise's accessibility performance.
• Performance Metrics: We'll establish key performance metrics to measure your enterprise's level of commitment to accessibility, helping you track progress and make data-driven decisions.

Technical Expertise:

With over 20 years of experience in UX design and UI engineering, I can provide valuable technical expertise to your team. I can work closely with your technical teams, whether they specialize in design, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or other areas, to expand your program's capacity.

Here's how I can be of assistance:

• Technical Accessibility Consultation: I can engage with your technical teams, speaking their language and providing guidance on implementing accessibility best practices within your digital architecture.
• Capacity Building: I can help train and mentor your technical teams, equipping them with the skills and knowledge they need to ensure your digital assets are accessible to all.

In summary, I can provide a range of accessibility consulting services to help your organization navigate the challenges of a VUCA environment, optimize your resources, measure your accessibility commitment effectively, and ensure successful implementation through a combination of strategic planning, program evaluation, and technical expertise.a

Accessibility Development Guidance

This content provides guidance for developers to address accessibility issues in their code and create more inclusive experiences. It emphasizes the importance of collaboration between developers, product management, designers, and testers in achieving accessibility goals.

Key Points

1. Team Commitment KPIs

   Teams must agree on commitments to ensure the organization's success in creating inclusive experiences and identify and remove obstacles hindering developers from achieving this goal.

2. Core Responsibilities

   Developers should be able to test for accessibility, understand the definitions of "ready" and "done," and explain why accessibility is a requirement. They need to be aware of accessibility target policies and work in alignment with enterprise values.

3. Benefits of Accessibility

   Accessibility not only aligns with ethical values but also serves as a tool for innovation, offering a competitive advantage and helping organizations avoid legal risks.

4. Testing Methods

   The content explains the limitations and benefits of both manual and automated testing methods and emphasizes the importance of testing with assistive technology.

5. Acceptance Criteria

   Accessibility acceptance criteria should be specific yet concise and cover the nuances of different screen reader and browser combinations. The criteria should include elements such as name, role, state, and group for interactive elements.

6. Interpreting Accessibility Assessments

   Teams need training on how to interpret and act on accessibility assessment results, which often follow WCAG criteria.

7. Assistive Technology Test Suite

   The content provides suggestions for setting up assistive technology test suites on both desktop and mobile platforms to cover a wide range of user experiences.

8. Uniform Automated Testing Tools

   To streamline compliance, the use of a single, uniform automated testing tool is recommended for development, QA testing, and pipeline gating.

9. Definition of Ready

   The definition of ready should include accessibility annotation, ensuring that the code aligns with the intended user experience.

10. Definition of Done

    The definition of done should include product demos using assistive technology, completion of manual accessibility QA testing, and ensuring uniform automated testing tools meet the requirements.

In summary, this content provides comprehensive guidance for developers on addressing accessibility in their code, highlighting its importance, methods, and best practices. It emphasizes teamwork, commitment, and a user-centered approach to accessibility.