June 20, 2019 — Ten years ago the HTML5 proposition saw the light for the first time. HTML5 introduced new and extended APIs to support more interactive pages, and a whole stack of new semantic elements to delight us.

So after a lifetime (in web terms), how extensively are these elements being supported by browsers, used by developers, and how have they impacted upon the accessibility of websites that use them?

We’ll look at some successes, some elements where more browser or assistive technology finesse is required, and a frustrating selection where we are still a long way from being ‘match ready’.

Presentation Slides »

May 15, 2019 — This session has a look at some small tweaks that developers can make when building WordPress sites for themselves or their clients.

The first part explores using SVG images in a way that ensures that screen reader (and other AT) users can access them successfully. Then we’ll progress to some CSS techniques that are useful for improving accessibility in websites – during the development stage, for content authors, and for the benefit of your site visitors.

Where possible, I’ll be demoing some of the techniques covered.

March 29, 2019 — The accessibility of a website is significantly affected by the underlying HTML, CSS and javascript that developers use to create it. But it is also possible to impact upon the accessibility of a site at the design stage – both the visual design, and the interactive design or UX. And it’s not just about colour schemes either.

In this presentation I will outline a few key points to keep in mind when you are designing your next beautiful website or theme. I will illustrate the points with some good (and bad) examples.

Good design and web accessibility can go hand in hand – come and find out how.

I have previously presented this talk at WordCamp London 2017 and WordCamp Bristol 2017, and a couple of WP meetup groups.

August 30, 2018 — While speaking about accessibility I’ve realised that for some people the key to understanding why accessibility is so important comes from experiencing how people with disabilities actually use the websites we build. So I’ll be demoing two pieces of assistive technology (AT): 1) Dragon NaturallYSpeaking – voice recognition software and NVDA – a screen reader. 1) Dragon NaturallySpeaking is voice recognition software, typically used by people with motor impairments who are unable to use mouse or keyboard or touch. I’ll demonstrate how people move around within pages, follow links, deal with internet forms, and can emulate mouse movements when they need to. 2) NVDA is a screen reader typically used by those who are blind, or have poor vision, but also sometimes by those with cognitive impairments such as dyslexia. I’ll demonstrate what you hear when a page first loads, how people move around a page, how they can find information they are looking for in pages, how they follow links, and interact with forms and dropdown menus. Along the way we’ll see the challenges faced by users of these products if sites are not well created.

Presentation Slides »

December 12, 2017 — The accessibility of a website is significantly affected by the underlying HTML, CSS and javascript that developers use to create it. But it is also possible to impact upon the accessibility of a site at the design stage – both the visual design, and the interactive design or UX. And it’s not just about colour schemes either.

In this presentation I will outline a few key points to keep in mind when you are designing your next beautiful website or theme. I will illustrate the points with some good (and bad) examples.

Good design and web accessibility can go hand in hand – come and find out how.

I have previously presented this talk at WordCamp London 2017 and WordCamp Bristol 2017, WordCamp Edinburgh and a couple of WP meetup groups.

May 30, 2017 — The accessibility of a website is significantly affected by the underlying HTML, CSS and javascript that developers use to create it. But it is also possible to impact upon the accessibility of a site at the design stage – both the visual design, and the interactive design or UX. And it’s not just about colour schemes either.

In this presentation I will outline a few key points to keep in mind when you are designing your next beautiful website or theme. I will illustrate the points with some good (and bad) examples.

Good design and web accessibility can go hand in hand – come and find out how.

Presentation Slides »

July 4, 2016 — While speaking about accessibility I’ve realised that for some people the key to understanding why accessibility is so important comes from experiencing how people with disabilities actually use the websites we build. So I’ll be demoing two pieces of assistive technology (AT): Dragon – voice recognition software and NVDA – a screen reader.

May 29, 2016 — ARIA attributes are important in web accessibility to provide support for making interactive widgets like accordions and tab panels accessible to everyone.

This presentation will form an introduction to ARIA by showing you how to create accessible accordions for your WordPress themes. I’ll demonstrate using a screen reader and voice recognition software how the techniques can allow everyone to interact with the elements without compromising the functionality.

If javascript is the future, you need to understand ARIA too.

Presentation Slides »

December 17, 2015 — In this presentation I’m going to demo two pieces of assistive technology, and show you how they are actually used by people who rely on them to access the web.
Featured assistive technology (AT):
Dragon NaturallySpeaking – voice recognition software, typically used by those with motor impairments for whom using mouse and keyboard is not an option.
NVDA – a free, open source screen reader, typically used by those who are blind, or with poor eyesight, but also sometimes used by dyslexics and others with cognitive impairments.
Come and learn what it’s like to browse the web from a different perspective.

Presentation Slides »

May 30, 2015 — One of the recent WordPress accessibility initiatives has been the introduction of the ‘accessibility-ready’ tag for theme authors who wish to submit themes to the WordPress repository. The tag is used to indicate that a theme contains the best practices in web accessibility, and can form the basis of an accessible WordPress website. But uptake has been slow. This presentation looks at what you need to do to get your themes up to the ‘accessibility-ready’ standard – whether or not you intend to submit them to the repository. It’s not hard to do, and the benefits can be enormous for many, many people.
I will also be looking at whether it’s worth following the ‘accessibility-ready’ steps for plugins too.

Presentation Slides »