Accessibility Specialist. I focus on ensuring content created, events held and company assets are as accessible as possible, for as many people as possible.
Great to see that you have managed to put accessibility on the roadmap, and from the sounds of it quite high up the priority tree!
I am not familiar with JupyterLab (I literally just had a play with it now, interesting software I will have to explore some more!), but from your description here and the little bit I have seen it seems like there is a large part of this that falls under ATAG which is for "content creation" software (mainly CMS, but the principals apply to any documentation system where you are creating content).
This may help you with the queries / objections that the person who uses a screen reader raised in the discussion thread you linked, as WCAG compliance won't get you all the way there.
Also just from the wording used in the discussions, you all might need to just adjust the focus from "compliance" to "great experience"....that slight shift in thought process tends to make you learn to use a screen reader (it is quite easy I promise, takes maybe 30 minutes to get the basics down!), screen magnifier etc. and see where the major problems are rather than trying to follow a set of rules and guidance that are quite poorly written and confusing (but obviously essential)! It tends to focus your priorities a lot better!
I look forward to seeing more in the series and great work so far, you are already ahead of 95% of the competition just by putting accessibility on the table!
Oh and don't worry about feeling lost in the world of accessibility, I have been at it ages and I still get lost in it all!
Thanks for the kind words and advice! I'm surprised I haven't run into ATAG before, but it does look like it can help fill in some of the questions we are having while working on JupyterLab.
I totally agree that there is a huge difference in mindset and effort based on "compliance" to "great experience." I intentionally chose compliance to reflect the state I feel most of the community is currently in, but you make a point that setting the expectations higher may help us aim higher regardless of where we are now!
Accessibility Specialist. I focus on ensuring content created, events held and company assets are as accessible as possible, for as many people as possible.
ATAG doesn't get spoken about often, mainly because building publishing platforms is hard in the first place, adding accessibility on top after you have built it is a nightmare most developers don't want to endure.
Hopefully though while you are reimagining your product it is the ideal time to look into it.
As for the compliance vs great experience bit, if anything it makes life easier and doesn't make the bar any more difficult to reach. It just means that you will focus on the problems that 100 people experience rather than the problem one person may experience but it "ticks another box".
Overall I find it actually makes the job of improving accessibility easier as instead of 100 small things to focus on you can pick 3 or 4 big things and work on them (plus as an added bonus you learn the answers to the 100 small things along the way).
I look forward to hearing more about your progress as I said and if you ever need a little help on something you are all stuck on / unsure about feel free to give me a shout, if I have the time to help I will!
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Great to see that you have managed to put accessibility on the roadmap, and from the sounds of it quite high up the priority tree!
I am not familiar with JupyterLab (I literally just had a play with it now, interesting software I will have to explore some more!), but from your description here and the little bit I have seen it seems like there is a large part of this that falls under ATAG which is for "content creation" software (mainly CMS, but the principals apply to any documentation system where you are creating content).
This may help you with the queries / objections that the person who uses a screen reader raised in the discussion thread you linked, as WCAG compliance won't get you all the way there.
Also just from the wording used in the discussions, you all might need to just adjust the focus from "compliance" to "great experience"....that slight shift in thought process tends to make you learn to use a screen reader (it is quite easy I promise, takes maybe 30 minutes to get the basics down!), screen magnifier etc. and see where the major problems are rather than trying to follow a set of rules and guidance that are quite poorly written and confusing (but obviously essential)! It tends to focus your priorities a lot better!
I look forward to seeing more in the series and great work so far, you are already ahead of 95% of the competition just by putting accessibility on the table!
Oh and don't worry about feeling lost in the world of accessibility, I have been at it ages and I still get lost in it all!
Thanks for the kind words and advice! I'm surprised I haven't run into ATAG before, but it does look like it can help fill in some of the questions we are having while working on JupyterLab.
I totally agree that there is a huge difference in mindset and effort based on "compliance" to "great experience." I intentionally chose compliance to reflect the state I feel most of the community is currently in, but you make a point that setting the expectations higher may help us aim higher regardless of where we are now!
ATAG doesn't get spoken about often, mainly because building publishing platforms is hard in the first place, adding accessibility on top after you have built it is a nightmare most developers don't want to endure.
Hopefully though while you are reimagining your product it is the ideal time to look into it.
As for the compliance vs great experience bit, if anything it makes life easier and doesn't make the bar any more difficult to reach. It just means that you will focus on the problems that 100 people experience rather than the problem one person may experience but it "ticks another box".
Overall I find it actually makes the job of improving accessibility easier as instead of 100 small things to focus on you can pick 3 or 4 big things and work on them (plus as an added bonus you learn the answers to the 100 small things along the way).
I look forward to hearing more about your progress as I said and if you ever need a little help on something you are all stuck on / unsure about feel free to give me a shout, if I have the time to help I will!