{"id":4251336,"date":"2019-10-31T16:13:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T14:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/insight\/a-look-into-accessibility-essentials-for-the-web\/"},"modified":"2019-10-31T16:13:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T14:13:00","slug":"a-look-into-accessibility-essentials-for-the-web","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/en-uki\/insight\/a-look-into-accessibility-essentials-for-the-web\/","title":{"rendered":"A look into accessibility essentials for the web"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\n\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tBack to all articles\t\t<\/span>\n\t\n<\/a>\n\t\tA look into accessibility essentials for the web\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/picture>\n\t\n\t<\/div>
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\n\t\tJonathan Whiteside\t\t
\n\t\tGlobal EVP Technology\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\tDate\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t31 October 2019\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\tAs a frontend developer, it\u2019s easy to chase the latest frameworks and techniques at the expense of other existing technologies and best practices that are for the benefit of all.\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tAccessibility on the web is something that affects all of us in one way or another; even those of us who consider ourselves to be without a specific disability because good accessibility practices work in everyone\u2019s favour.\u00a0

Good accessibility isn\u2019t the responsibility of one person on one team, it\u2019s a mindset that begins with initial scoping with the client and carries through UX and design, as well as requires mindfulness from front-end coders to implement. However, with ever-evolving frameworks and processes, some of the basics related to web accessibility can easily be forgotten.

To continue the conversations we\u2019re having around internet accessibility at DEPT\u00ae, I invited\u00a0Chris Mills<\/a>\u00a0Senior Content Editor for the Mozilla Developer Network, to chime in on the topic and relay his insight on what should be categorised as essentials. The \u2018lunch and learn\u2019 event was open to the entire Manchester office to inform those intrigued on the subject and acted as a refresher for the front-end and UX\/D teams.
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An interesting part of Chris\u2019s talk was around WAI-ARIA (Web Accessibility Initiative \u2013 Accessible Rich Internet Applications). He explained and demoed how developers can tame the \u201cdiv soup\u201d conundrum caused by some frameworks. This solution works in a way that it is possible to regain some of the semantic prompts using aria-labels, which helps web browsers determine the content of a page.

Additionally, he assured developers we can still work towards accessibility in frameworks, reminding them to just use a native \u201cbutton\u201d element \u2014 instead of hijacking a div \u2014 and the button comes with all good browser behaviour baked in. Don\u2019t overlook the basic building blocks of the web that have been there since the start!

Chris was an absolute delight to have in the office and his light-hearted approach, but obvious dedication and care, made for an engaging talk that resonated with the team. He lamented the direction of current web dev trends, whilst describing himself as a \u201cWeb standards and a11y whingebag\u201d.

Accessibility has never been too far from the news in the last decade, but more recently was brought up again when global pizza giant\u00a0Dominoes defended a case<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0making their site and app accessible with a screen reader. This demonstrates there is a lot of work to do in changing mindsets about how we build an inclusive digital experience for all.

Raising awareness of accessibility is an ongoing process. I consider this talk a success if everyone who watched Chris\u2019s presentation left thinking \u201coh I didn\u2019t know that, I\u2019ll use that from now on\u201d or \u201cI\u2019ll look out for that in the next round of testing\u201d. Judging by the questions and comments afterwards, we achieved this across all the teams in attendance and will continue to improve our outputs in each of our respective craft.\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t