Transcript What to teach and how. A consultant’s perspective on accessibility education - David Sloan

What to teach and how. A consultant’s
perspective on accessibility education
David Sloan @sloandr
BCS Digital Accessibility in HE and FE, London, April 7th
2016
An accessibility consultant’s typical
view of accessibility?
Example of accessibility audit
spreadsheet
Organisations pay us for bad news.
Key problems: technical view
• Lack of basic web development skills
– using HTML appropriately
• Keyboard operation and focus management
• Name, role, state/value of custom components
• Use of colour
• Image accessibility
Key problems: organisational view
• Accessibility isn’t connected to good UX activity
• Accessibility doesn’t fit well into development practices
• Accessibility doesn’t influence selection and use of thirdparty code and content
• Responsibility and authority for accessibility isn’t evenly
spread
What we need: role-based
responsibility for accessibility
Accessible Design Maturity Continuum
An Accessible Design Maturity Continuum, uxfor.us/mature-it
Challenges for educators
• Integrate accessibility through the curriculum
– A core digital literacy that ALL learners should
develop
– A fundamental part of specialist digital-focused
curricula
– Processes and practices
– In the learning experience and in assessment
• Curricula accreditation schemes must influence
institutions to raise standards
Opportunities
• Our digital creators and decision-makers of the future
have grown up in a more diverse, inclusive world
• Diversification of platforms and devices
• Accessibility is becoming recognised as an essential
professional skill…
“Please supply us with graduates
with accessibility skills”
—Industry initiative teachaccess.org
Thank you!
@sloandr
paciellogroup.com