I have been desiring to learn more about accessibility, but I do feel a bit overwhelmed by everything. As a hobbyist it isn’t a huge priority but it would be a good thing to learn.
Accessibility First DevRel. I focus on ensuring content created, events held and company assets are as accessible as possible, for as many people as possible.
That right there sums the problem up in 2 sentences! I don't think I could have described the issue any more succinctly than that, thank you! ❤
If you feel so overwhelmed that your response is "it isn't a huge priority" then the whole ecosystem has failed you!
You see hobbyists like yourself often end up building better and better products, sites etc. out of necessity.
Those sites may have thousands of visitors one day and as such we still have a big divide between the "haves" and the "have nots" when it comes to access to information.
By the time you "have to" think about accessibility (which technically is day one under the laws of most countries! But the risk of getting sued is not a concern for hobby sites so you don't have the law as an incentive sadly!) the damage is done and you have loads of bad habits you have to unlearn.
Also we need to make it much easier for new people / hobbyists like yourself as you will always see accessibility as "something that I have to do" and a chore instead of "for the sake of 10 seconds extra work I can make sure my site includes everybody" and a joy / something beneficial to your projects.
The problem is it is 10 seconds of work but months and years of knowledge and that is why we are in this mess!
What would be the "balancing point" for you where we turned accessibility from "something nice to do" to "something I am happy to do" or better yet turn it into a priority for you?
I suppose for myself, a short good quality course or walk through is most desired.
I understand the purpose of accessibility, so I am less concerned with theory and more concerned with practicality and how do I best implement this? I remember some of the things I read before being like “you should do x, y, z” but telling me to do something and showing me how to do it are not equal.
Like how do I make an onClick dropdown menu accessible to an individual who solely accesses the internet with a keyboard? Maybe I really haven’t looked into it enough 🤷♀️. I do remember looking into this area around 5 months ago wishing more of the information was as straight forward as learning React or CSS grid.
Accessibility First DevRel. I focus on ensuring content created, events held and company assets are as accessible as possible, for as many people as possible.
That is good to know, I think the lack of simple to understand examples has been a running theme through this thread so I will definitely be looking at addressing that!
I doubt we could do a short course due to the breadth of the subject but a “bit sized” course where concepts are explained in a granular fashion might be more easy to pick up and keep diving into and less overwhelming!
Accessibility First DevRel. I focus on ensuring content created, events held and company assets are as accessible as possible, for as many people as possible.
I am pouring lots of resource into it at the moment, so I will endeavour to remember to tell you if anything applicable gets released you might find interesting!
Thanks for the invaluable feedback! ❤
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I have been desiring to learn more about accessibility, but I do feel a bit overwhelmed by everything. As a hobbyist it isn’t a huge priority but it would be a good thing to learn.
That right there sums the problem up in 2 sentences! I don't think I could have described the issue any more succinctly than that, thank you! ❤
If you feel so overwhelmed that your response is "it isn't a huge priority" then the whole ecosystem has failed you!
You see hobbyists like yourself often end up building better and better products, sites etc. out of necessity.
Those sites may have thousands of visitors one day and as such we still have a big divide between the "haves" and the "have nots" when it comes to access to information.
By the time you "have to" think about accessibility (which technically is day one under the laws of most countries! But the risk of getting sued is not a concern for hobby sites so you don't have the law as an incentive sadly!) the damage is done and you have loads of bad habits you have to unlearn.
Also we need to make it much easier for new people / hobbyists like yourself as you will always see accessibility as "something that I have to do" and a chore instead of "for the sake of 10 seconds extra work I can make sure my site includes everybody" and a joy / something beneficial to your projects.
The problem is it is 10 seconds of work but months and years of knowledge and that is why we are in this mess!
What would be the "balancing point" for you where we turned accessibility from "something nice to do" to "something I am happy to do" or better yet turn it into a priority for you?
I suppose for myself, a short good quality course or walk through is most desired.
I understand the purpose of accessibility, so I am less concerned with theory and more concerned with practicality and how do I best implement this? I remember some of the things I read before being like “you should do x, y, z” but telling me to do something and showing me how to do it are not equal.
Like how do I make an onClick dropdown menu accessible to an individual who solely accesses the internet with a keyboard? Maybe I really haven’t looked into it enough 🤷♀️. I do remember looking into this area around 5 months ago wishing more of the information was as straight forward as learning React or CSS grid.
That is good to know, I think the lack of simple to understand examples has been a running theme through this thread so I will definitely be looking at addressing that!
I doubt we could do a short course due to the breadth of the subject but a “bit sized” course where concepts are explained in a granular fashion might be more easy to pick up and keep diving into and less overwhelming!
Thanks so much! ❤️
Thank you for being so willing to address this area!
If you create a course, I would definitely be interested in learning from it.
I am pouring lots of resource into it at the moment, so I will endeavour to remember to tell you if anything applicable gets released you might find interesting!
Thanks for the invaluable feedback! ❤