What message are we telling our users when they log into a product that didn't prioritize accessibility? Have we put up barriers? Will they assume we wanted to exclude them? There are many types of disabilities, and without a careful effort to consider the experiences of all users, we could easily unintentionally create frustrated users and decrease engagement and revenue. There could also be legal risks with inaccessible web applications, especially when they are served by the public sector or provide public services. Customers and stakeholders will want to be assured of the compliance of products such as these, but even if organizations can agree to take accessibility seriously, where would they start?

This talk provides a basic foundation of web accessibility principles that software engineers, UX designers, and product managers should know. Learn about a variety of automated and manual testing strategies, and why accessibility is not something we can simply ask a robot agent to do for us. There are many guidelines to consider, but it is possible to start taking action, and I will share personal stories of the transformations we are making in our product, processes, and people to remediate existing issues and ensure a commitment to conformance moving forward.

My hope is to share with you the value of web accessibility and to inspire you to start incorporating accessibility work into every part of the software development process.