I wrote the accessibility book I needed 17 years ago when I made my career shift to focus on disability and accessibility. In 2004, I was struggling with a miserable career. I finished law school in 1997. I spent a…
What does an “accessibility flywheel” look like?
Flywheels distill complicated sets of business processes down to the most critical inflection points, enhancing stakeholder focus. A business flywheel is an alternative to the more traditional “funnel” that graphically portrayed processes must follow to get and keep customers. The…
If somebody can use it, somebody can misuse it
Software development and the “doctrine of foreseeable misuse.” There is a portion of the American legal system under the category of negligence called “strict product liability,” also referred to as SPL. Under SPL, anyone in the product chain (seller, distributor, or…
Technology doesn’t make accessibility hard. People who don’t care do.
Everything that makes accessibility difficult ties back to one root cause: People not giving a damn about others who are different. These are the different categories of people you will run into in corporate settings that will make life difficult…
2021 accessibility predictions
Yeah, machine learning and personalization made the list, but I also have a couple of other thoughts. It’s time for the annual “Year-End” accessibility predictions. Machine Learning Machine learning is going to continue to be exceptionally important to the advancement…
Starting a new accessibility remediation project?
Marie Kondo’ing the project first will get you to your goal faster. Yay, you finally convinced someone to prioritize remediating an inaccessible website. What could possibly go wrong? </snark> There are approaches and prioritization that will make your end goal…
My top 10 favorite disability/ accessibility articles of the year
Picking your favorite articles when you’ve written 145 of them in the past 12 months is like picking your favorite kids. After I was named the UX Collective Medium author of 2020, I was asked on LinkedIn to post a list…
Accessibility certifications: separating what IS good from what just sounds good
Certification is: a standardized method with a formal process that individuals use to demonstrate that they are qualified at a specific level in particular knowledge or skills. Hiring managers use certifications to identify candidates that possess the skills the organization…
#DCX: Disabled Customer Experience
Anyone with a disability has endless stories about being treated differently SOLELY on their PwD status. #DCX tracks those stories. Having had a life-long mobility disability, I think I’ve heard it all, and then it never ceases to fail that…
Your first attempt at making anything accessible will be awful
Don’t use this as an excuse. Even awful is better than 98 % of what other people are doing. My primary goal in life is to convince people to make things accessible, which is defined as making products and services…