Getting Started Truly is Easy

You get an itch to learn about Web accessibility. Then you encounter an endlessly long discussion of ARIA that makes your head start to throb. Please, don’t groan and give up on accessibility.

Avoid head pain. Start your reading on familiar ground: HTML and CSS. Many accessibility problems are resolved with proper use of these technologies. So, start here.

You will find the HTML and CSS solutions to be technically easy. The challenges stem from needing to break old habits.

ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) is essential to developing custom widgets. Still, this should be the last topic you tackle since many common accessibility issues are best addressed without ARIA.

Basic References

• WebAIM articles.
  
  
  Most of the articles are quick reads. The discussions of tables and forms may take you more time.
• An action plan.
  
  
  This is perhaps the most important article at WebAIM.
• WCAG Checklist.
  
  
  You may have an old checklist, but it’s worth reading this update.
• The A11Y Project.
  
  
  This online community puts much effort into simplifying the accessibility learning curve, and the work pays off.
• Mozilla Accessibility.
  
  
  Check out the tutorials.
• An introduction to standards conformance.
• The Web Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), v2.1.
  
  
  The W3’s latest standards for conformance levels A, AA, and AAA. Issued in 2018.
• W3 Accessibility Overview.
  The ultimate knowledgebase of the topic.
• W3C Authoring Practices.
  
  
  A great summary of ARIA and JavaScript solutions for common widgets.
  Also, see: Definitions of ARIA roles, properties and states

Monitoring Element and ARIA Support among Browsers and Screen Readers

• Track browser suport for accessibility features of HTML 5 elements.
• ARIA support tracking
• Steve Faulkner on the HTML title attribute and
  
  
  Faulkner on HTML and ARIA
  
  
  He is a prominent proponent of accessibility standards. His word carries a lot of weight.

Downloads

• The Apex repository of widget templates and basic reference material.
  
  
  The site offers many downloadable widgets that can be implemented with little or no ARIA knowledge.
• The Able Media Player.
  A very robust audio and video player.

When reading this information, you may notice:

• The technical difficulty of the HTML material is on a par with ordinary Web development.
• Many of the basics do not lengthen the development cycle. Of course, that may be my bias since I do not think it is time-consuming to write alt text for graphics.
• The work does require that authors keep accessibility in mind and make workable choices.

Published: 05/19/2020.