Tools

Why We Need More Accessibility Designers

Anna E. Cook (she/her or they/them)

Many accessibility defects originate in design, so why do the bulk of accessibility considerations fall to developers and quality assurance? In this talk, we will discuss why we need more accessibility designers, what it means to be an accessibility designer, and the day-to-day responsibilities of an accessibility designer. Learn how you can advocate to create accessibility designer roles and begin to train yourself to specialize in accessibility as a designer.

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Whole-to-Part versus Part-to-Whole: How Sighted and Blind Web Navigation Differs

Michele Williams

Designing with blind consumers in mind can be difficult for sighted team members, often leading to disregarding best practices that benefit blind visitors. To help turn this around, this presentation will break down a key difference in page navigation approaches (“whole-to-part” vs. “part-to-whole”), and explain design and code components that make exploration easier for everyone.

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PDF Pitfalls and How to Meet PDF/UA

Helen Burge

What are some of the most common issues found in PDFs when it comes to accessibility – and how do you fix them? This talk will give you a high-level overview of the standards and testing methods, including information on PDF/Universal Accessibility (PDF/UA). Helen will lead us through a live demo showing the differences between PAC3 and the Adobe accessibility checker, plus give us helpful remediation advice for common issues you might encounter.

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Automated Accessibility Testing in JavaScript Frameworks

Mark Steadman

Automated testing for accessibility issues with axe-core is one of the best and most effective ways to catch up to 50% of accessibility violations. In this talk, we will take a look at the levels of testing needed from an automated perspective to ensure your content is accessible at a component level and an application-level using a working React application and the axe-core testing frameworks.

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Introduction to Screen Readers

Tim Harshbarger

Screen readers are a type of assistive technology device that can help all kinds of people, including people with no vision, low vision, cognitive issues, or even non-disabled people who want to hear the words spoken aloud. Join in on the conversation as Tim discusses the best and most popular screen reader/browser combinations, explains some common screen reader commands, and leads us in a screen reader demo!

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