Web Accessibility with Nic Steenhout

JavaScript – Software Engineering Daily

“But the bottom line is, accessibility is actually a challenge for coders, and I’ve yet to meet a coder that doesn’t like a good challenge.”

Disabled individuals account for over a billion people worldwide. This represents the world’s largest minority on the Web, with $220 billion in discretionary spending power in the United States alone. Yet, the accessible web is more than a financial issue – it is also a moral issue, and it is crucial that we make the web accessible to ensure an equitable information platform.

Today’s guest Nic Steenhout joins us to explain how to develop software with accessibility in mind. At the upcoming Fluent Conference, he will be giving a talk entitled Don’t turn off that JavaScript just yet, referencing JavaScript’s history of causing accessibility problems. If you want to win a free ticket to Fluent, tweet about your favorite episode of Software Engineering Daily and tag @fluentconf and @software_daily.

Nic Steenhout is a software engineer and an accessibility consultant at Simply Accessible.

Questions

• What is accessibility engineering?
• Why is accessibility so important for developers to focus on?
• What are the steps companies are taking to improve the accessibility of their products?
• How did you get involved in the field of accessibility?
• How have accessibility solutions evolved since the 90’s?
• How did your life change after you began using a wheelchair?
• What is something counterintuitive you have learned about accessibility?

Links

• Simply Accessible: accessibility training, support, and testing
• Modals (pop ups)
• Screen reader
• Accessibility Engineering with Léonie Watson
• Nic’s personal page

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