Nov 24, 2022

Accessibility in Design Series: Accessibility isn't hindering your design, your process is.

About this video

Description

Presented by Chloe Typert-Morrison Provisional RGD. Moderated by Magued Hanna RGD.

This presentation discusses the need for web designers and developers to alter their design processes to include accessibility from the beginning. The industry is still very much focused on assessing WCAG compliance at the end of a project and remediating based on the errors. However, this process often requires changes to foundational elements like website colour palettes, website structure, and content tagging. In the end, people end up needing to do twice the amount of work. This is where the misconception that accessibility guidelines ruin website design, cost more to implement or take much longer to build stems from. In actuality, if accessibility guidelines are being implemented during the initial development, there will be far less room for errors at the end. The decided on colour palettes will be compliant because the contrast will have already been checked, semantic structures will be used throughout the content development process, all interactive media will have to be considered how effective it is and how to build it accessibly before starting the development, and content navigation and placement will be considered throughout to ensure that it is clear and easy to maneuver for the end audience.

This presentation will cover some basic changes that anyone can apply to their design and development processes while urging attendees to consider why making these changes now will help everyone have a better website experience in the future. Attendees will have a shift in perspective from seeing accessibility guidelines as something that hinders their design process to seeing them as something that helps make their websites better, easier to interact with for everyone and give them more confidence in their end products.

About Chloe Typert-Morrison Provisional RGD

Chloe Typert-Morrison (she/her) is an Inclusive Experience Designer from the Greater Toronto Area. As a self-proclaimed people enthusiast, she is passionate about helping others through design and is currently pursuing her master's in Inclusive Design at OCAD University.

Moderated by Magued Hanna RGD