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Ask HN: Is accessibility worth it?

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Re: Ask HN: Is accessibility worth it?

#11

Post by codingdave »

tra3 wrote: post #4

I've worked in education previously. Apart from being mandated by the gov't, lots of kids have issues so making allowances for them makes sense. We had to retrofit some of the WCAG functionality into our product. Possible but better to have it as a requirement up front. The thing is, modern browsers are really good about accessibility so you gotta go out of your way to mess it up. In my opinion it's like having ramps…

I also work in education and agree. I have also had direct calls with the Feds who enforce accessibility, and their stance is evolving. The future trend is not going to be just "can it be used?", but "is the experience as smooth as it is for fully abled users?"

As an example, if you make mouse-based users do something in 2 clicks, but keyboard-based users tab through 100 elements to do the same thing, that is going to be flagged as not accessible even if it does pass WCAG validators.

As far as startup MVPs go, I agree completely that it isn't required on day one, but the design should take it into consideration to be ready for the future.

Re: Ask HN: Is accessibility worth it?

#12

Post by sharps_xp »

codingdave wrote: post #11
tra3 wrote: post #4

I've worked in education previously. Apart from being mandated by the gov't, lots of kids have issues so making allowances for them makes sense. We had to retrofit some of the WCAG functionality into our product. Possible but better to have it as a requirement up front. The thing is, modern browsers are really good about accessibility so you gotta go out of your way to mess it up. In my opinion it's like having ramps…

I also work in education and agree. I have also had direct calls with the Feds who enforce accessibility, and their stance is evolving. The future trend is not going to be just "can it be used?", but "is the experience as smooth as it is for fully abled users?" As an example, if you make mouse-based users do something in 2 clicks, but keyboard-based users tab through 100 elements to do the same thing, that is going t…

thanks for that insight. that kind of throws drag and drop interfaces out the window

Re: Ask HN: Is accessibility worth it?

#13

Post by bgxor »

My experience is that a11y is often not a priority and then one day it is suddenly the highest priority. It is not fun to have to drop everything you are doing and retrofit and/or redesign to avoid a lawsuit or losing a big contract.

The easiest thing you can do is run a linter with an a11y plugin to make sure you cover the basics. It can be annoying at first, but you'll get used to it.

A tool like axe (https://github.com/dequelabs/axe-core) is good for checking your work and/or automating away some of the less obvious stuff. It provides both a Chrome plugin and an automated checker for CI.

Getting comfortable enough with this stuff that it no longer requires a ton of work is definitely a good goal. Your users will have a better time overall and you'll have peace of mind.

Re: Ask HN: Is accessibility worth it?

#15

Post by BjoernKW »

HTML is accessible by default. Screen readers or similar tools are good at making sense of HTML that provides fallbacks (such as alt attributes) and doesn't stray too far from the standard.

As for tools, for example, there is https://tenon.io/ by accessibility expert Karl Groves.

Re: Ask HN: Is accessibility worth it?

#16

Post by sugaroverflow »

I think accessibility is critical for websites, but whether or not it makes business sense depends on the organization and its audience.

I've worked for municipal government in the US and federal in Canada. In the US, following Section 508 and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) was a requirement for all our projects. As a team, we also committed to writing at a Grade 5 or less reading level, as for many constituents of the city, English may not be their first language, and government services should be accessible to everyone. Having a website that people could use, interact with, complete tasks on, etc, meant that they were fewer phone calls, emails, and support requests for things like translation support, checking where the snowplows were, or renewing a dog license.

If you have a broad audience and a global audience, having an accessible website makes it possible for everyone to get the information or have the interaction you're looking for. In my experience sometimes that can be mean losing out on cutting-edge or super interactive features, but you get to ensure a baseline pleasant experience for everyone.

Re: Ask HN: Is accessibility worth it?

#17

Post by seanwilson »

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/001872081664096...

> A high level of Web accessibility led to better performance (i.e., task completion time and task completion rate) than low or very low accessibility. Likewise, high Web accessibility improved user ratings (i.e., perceived usability, aesthetics, workload, and trustworthiness) compared to low or very low Web accessibility. There was no difference between the very low and low Web accessibility conditions for any of the outcome measures.

Re: Ask HN: Is accessibility worth it?

#19

Post by austincheney »

> can someone present an argument that making a website accessible for a wider audience FIRST makes good business sense?

In more than 80% of cases accessibility is free if you know what you are doing. The best business case there is a competence filter on hiring front end developers.

Re: Ask HN: Is accessibility worth it?

#20

Post by lashkari »

sharps_xp wrote: post #12
codingdave wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also work in education and agree. I have also had direct calls with the Feds who enforce accessibility, and their stance is evolving. The future trend is not going to be just "can it be used?", but "is the experience as smooth as it is for fully abled users?" As an example, if you make mouse-based users do something in 2 clicks, but keyboard-based users tab through 100 elements to do the same thing, that is going t…

thanks for that insight. that kind of throws drag and drop interfaces out the window

We made drag-and-drop interfaces accessible by allowing users to TAB through the original list, press ENTER on the item they want to move, then use the arrow keys to move the item and press ENTER again when done (or ESC to cancel). After each move, the item's current position, and any necessary local context, was announced via `aria-live` region.

There are other ways that this can be accomplished with even fewer keystrokes, so I can't imagine a scenario where drag-and-drop interfaces would have to be avoided because they couldn't be made meaningfully accessible.

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