The approach
The Book on Accessibility doesn’t focus on compliance, it focuses on commitment. Why?
Too many leaders want to make accessibility somebody else’s problem. You can outsource compliance but you can’t outsource commitment.
Let’s try a different approach.
The goal
Commit to building cost effective continuous accessibility through a holistic program and measurable outcomes. Stop repeating an expensive cycle of never-ending remediation and assessments.
If you can check the boxes and answer the questions, you’ll create a structure capable of supporting digital accessibility.
How to use this guide
You’re going to have to guide teams to their commitments and watch for measurable outcomes.
This is the workbook for doing just that.
Be a leader and apply it to the actual work that needs to be done by your organization. The purpose of any manager is to enable teams to do great work.
There have been many influences, definitive publications, and strong voices that have helped shape my own career and voice, and I think I bring a unique approach to solving these problems at an enterprise scale.
Common responses
Take a look at the most common questions and feedback about the book, along with some responses.
Not all of this applies to my team
Correct. Every enterprise is different.
It’s intended to be modified, hacked, extended or ignored when it doesn’t match up with your organization’s structure, approach or point of view.
It’s written from the perspective of working in an enterprise scale software development environment.
If your operation is smaller, you still need to account for the same issues, even if some roles are combined.
You didn’t invent that idea
The design and development concepts in this book have been around for decades, and the strategic management approaches have been around even longer.
The techniques, competencies, team alignments and processes are based on common sense strategies used by any strategic-minded program director.
So, of course I didn’t invent any ideas in this book except for one.
You take too much of a black and white view
I think it’s better to be bold, direct, and to take a strong stand, rather than use a wishy-washy voice. Organization’s can’t change strategic goals, policies and tactics with words and phrases like “kinda”, “maybe”, or “it sure would be nice”.
This won’t work inside my company
Of course. Your situation is different. You may need to take a different approach. You’re going to encounter some seemingly immovable obstacles.
But you can do this! Use your own judgment and imagination. Adapt and improvise processes. And in the end, you’ll make life better for your customers at your own company.
The author
Charlie Triplett is a leader with 20 years of UX design and UI engineering experience who is now focused on accessibility consulting and coaching.
He wrote this book to fill a specific space in the digital accessibility space.
There are many technical guides on writing code for accessibility, but zero guides for how to build an accessibility program.
A common refrain in the accessibility space is, “There’s no playbook for how to do this.” Well, that is no longer true.
He also invented AtomicA11y.com, a tool for automatically creating atomic accessibility acceptance criteria.