Denis Boudreau, Principal web accessiblity consultant, Deque Systems
Disability Area: Topic Area:
Length of Session (in hours): 1-hr
Format: Lecture
Expertise Level: Beginner
Type of session: Not provided
Summary of Session
The disruption brought to development teams by accessibility requirements jeopardizes project profitability. How can organizations managing multiple development teams over as many projects make their entire web presence consistently accessible, when no one agrees on what must be done, and how?
Abstract
Various public administrations around the globe are adopting WCAG 2.0 as the baseline for their web accessibility standards, but do they really understand what it is they're adopting? The upcoming Section508 refresh will probably align the United States to WCAG 2.0 level AA in the next year or so - these standards disrupt traditional development patterns within organizations. This disruption jeopardizes the profitability of Web projects. History shows that accessibility experts have raised countless heated debates on how to best implement WCAG. If subject matter experts cannot agree on the most efficient interpretations, how can we expect the rest of us to agree on a common understanding? How can an organization managing multiple web development teams over as many web development projects make their entire web presence consistently accessible, when no one agrees on what must be done, and how? This session will begin by demonstrating how accessibility standards can be filtered into a series of simple, straightforward and easy to implement requirements that can help organizations tackle web accessibility more efficiently. Through lectures and break out sessions, participants will analyze various WCAG 2.0 success criteria to build a common understanding that can then be shared with every stakeholders in a Web project, regardless of their level of expertise with the accessibility guidelines, so organizations can achieve their goals of digital inclusion on the web.
Kepoints
understanding the benefits of planning for accessibility from the very start
filtering accessibility into easy to implement requirements
sharing the roles and responsilibilities with the whole development team
Speaker Bio(s)
Denis Boudreau
Denis is a Montreal-based Principal Web Accessibility Consultant and Strategist, working for Deque Systems, and a member of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in the Education and Outreach Working Group. He has been advocating social inclusion on the Web for the past 16 years, and has been running the annual a11yMTL conference in Montreal, Canada since 2010. An admitted nerd with an unhealthy fixation on UX and digital inclusion and a perpetual itch to use his passport, Denis has a passion for design that emotionally resonates, is beautifully engaging, and delightfully accessible. When Denis is not busy making the Web more accessible to everyone, he enjoys public speaking, table-top role-playing games and taking naps to rebuild his introvert bubble.