As part of SheSharp’s effort to create an inclusive and accessible community environment and drive action, we put together a list of resources for anyone who wants to help us raise awareness, create inclusive experiences or design and build products for everyone regardless of their abilities.
What will you find here?
- The history behind the fight for disability civil rights.
- Disability sensitivity training
- What is ableism?
- Web accessibility standards and testing tools
- What is inclusive design?
- Accessibility workshops and courses
- Communities you can join
- Book recommendations
- Who to follow
Before you go any further, here is a quick list of upcoming summits and conferences in 2021 themed around accessibility and inclusive design.
Inclusive Design 24 is a free 24-hour online event for the global community, celebrating inclusive design and ideas, taking place on 23 September 21! Registrations are not required as the event will be live-streamed for Inclusive Design 24 YouTube channel.
A11Y Talks community features fresh topics and conversations around digital accessibility monthly. To see the latest talks or join upcoming ones, check out their Accessibility Talks YouTube channel.
#a11yTO actively promotes inclusion for the design and development communities in and around the Greater Toronto Area. Join the virtually for the #a11yWeekTO on October 18th, 2021. For more details on agenda and call for presentations, follow their website.
To keep an eye on Global Accessibility Awareness Day and all related events in 2022, follow the GAAD community website.
The fight for Disability Rights
Judith is one of the key figures in the Crip Camp documentary that portrays the fight for disability civil rights. You can watch the full documentary here.
Disability Sensitivity Training
Tips for creating positive interactions and raising everyone’s comfort levels.
Watch this video below on how NOT to make things awkward.
Let’s Talk About Ableism
Why you need to stop using these words and phrases is an article by Harvard Business Review talking about ableism showing up in our language in different ways and how our vocabularies can help us think and behave with people around us.
Web Accessibility Standards
To find out what web accessibility laws and policies are in place in your country, use the overview provided by Web Accessibility Initiative (W3C).
Automated Tools and Testing
All the tools listed below will help you with automated testing. However, remember that automated testing always goes hand in hand with manual testing.
The resource page from the a11y project offers a wide range of tools to help you run accessibility audits, check colour contrast, test your website or app with a screen reader, vision simulators and other developer tools.
Anyone can experience a disability when the design, the environment, the attitude, the social structure excludes them from participating and performing at their optimum. This short movie talks about how inclusive design can help us create experiences for a diverse audience.
Kath Holmes, the founder of Mismatch Design, talks about challenges about developing inclusive practices in company culture and the design process she gathered over the years.
A great resource to help you is this toolkit by Microsoft, providing you with a comprehensive introduction to inclusive design, how to stress-test concepts through an inclusive lens and more.
We like this visual do’s and don’ts guide on designing for accessibility, showcasing how to cater for users with low vision, loss of hearing, motor disabilities, people on the autistic spectrum or users of screen readers.
Accessibility Workshops and Courses
Try out this workshop to gain hands-on experience in building accessible web applications.
The following course from Coursera is a great introduction to accessible web development. Through the guided project, you’ll learn how assistive technologies interpret your code, how to create semantic HTML and more.
To make sure the code you wrote is accessible, remember to test. Here is a short guided project to teach you how to administer automated and manual tests and interpret the results you obtained.
A11y with Lindsey is a great source of advice and practical insights for developers to navigate through accessibility jargon and to create an inclusive internet.
Mismatch Design by Kath Holmes
Accessibility for Everyone by Laura Kalbag
Design for Real Life by Eric Meyer and Sara Watcher-Boettcher
Designing for accessibility is not hard by Pablo Stanley on Medium
How to gain buy-in for accessibility by UX Design on Medium
7 things designer needs to know about accessibility on Medium
Giving a damn about accessibility (available in audio as well) by Sheri Byrne-Haber, CPACC
Communities To Join
A11Y Talks is a community hosting virtual events about digital accessibility monthly.
A11Y Project is a community-driven effort to make digital accessibility easier. How do they do it? By providing useful insights, practical checklists and resources to help you build inclusive online space.
Disability Visibility Project is an online community creating, sharing and amplifying disability media and culture through articles, podcasts, books and more.
Who To Follow
@katholmes, Author of Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design
@juttatreviranus, Director of Inclusive Design Research Centre
@devonpersing, Technical Program Manager, Accessibility, Shopify
@debraruh, CEO, Ruh Global Impact
@cariefisher, Senior Accessibility Trainer/Dev, Deque, A11Talks Founder
@ScopicEngineer, Quality and Accessibility Engineer
@LauraKalbag, Author of Accessibility for Everyone
@feather, Chief Experience Officer @LevelAccessA11y
@DisVisibility, Alice Wong, Editor of Disability Visibility