How to Break Into the Digital Accessibility Profession: Perspectives from a Mentor in the Accessibility NextGen Mentorship Program
Session #1: Accessibility NextGen Mentorship Program
Starting a career in tech can be intimidating as technologists new to the profession struggle to find (1) the area of tech they align with and (2) the path to become an expert in their field. The Accessibility NextGen Mentorship Program hopes to provide some assistance to those people interested in pursuing tech careers and who want to concentrate on digital accessibility. They may want to be an accessibility engineer, an accessibility consultant, an accessibility tester, a disability inclusion advocate, an accessibility designer, or maybe they just want to be a well-rounded technologist who is aware that accessibility should be a part of their everyday considerations and workflow practices.
The question remains, however, “How do I become (fill in the blank)?”
One strategy is through mentorship. By connecting people interested in accessibility with those in the field already, accessibility knowledge as well as community networks can be rapidly expanded. I consider it a great opportunity to give back to the technology community by serving as an accessibility mentor. I will be able to share my personal experiences, my knowledge, and my own established accessibility network with my mentee. My hope is that through mentorship I can facilitate a much quicker connection to the accessibility community for my mentee and help him quickly locate resources, training, and ultimately jobs related to his field of interest (that is, web development).
It occurred to me that it would be a worthwhile effort to document my approach to mentorship in a series of posts. I figured that as long as I was creating a document for one person — why not share that information for all? The more people we connect to the mission of creating inclusive digital experiences that are accessible for all, the better off our technology community will be.
And you know what is amazing? My mentee, just six months into his career as a web developer, is already trying to produce websites that meet accessibility standards. He has been using Deque’s axeDevTools browser plugin to try to catch accessibility errors as he’s developing. Kudos to him and this generation of technologists so aware of the need for digital accessibility and inclusion!
In preparation for our next session, I assigned a little homework to prepare for our next meeting. We will focus on three topics:
Understand “the why” of accessibility by centering people with disabilities (PwD)
Keep in mind that the purpose for technologists to have an accessibility practice is to help people. It’s about centering the needs of people with disabilities so that websites and applications are built without barriers to access. In order to understand disabled people’s needs and the barriers that they face, we must work on improving our awareness of disabilities and the ways in which these disabilities effect how users interact with our digital products.
Over the next month I have encouraged my mentee to do the following:
(1) Read Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally by disability rights activist Emily Ladau. It’s important to hear directly from people with disabilities when considering how to talk about disability, how to understand and avoid ableism, and how to incorporate accessibility in your daily practice. “Nothing about us without us!”
(2) Watch the documentary film Crip Camp
(3) Watch Web Accessibility Perspectives Videos: Explore the Impact and Benefits for Everyone to demonstrate how “web accessibility is essential for people with disabilities and useful for all.”
(4) Read Stories of Web Users in order to showcase the accessibility barriers people with disabilities face.
Expand our A11y community network
In order to have a successful accessibility practice, it is necessary to network and rely on others within the accessibility community. Accessibility is all about context, and there is absolutely no one class or workshop that is going to give you all the answers about how to craft accessible solutions. Technologists need to build up a community of people to learn from and to be able to direct their questions.
It’s hard to know where to get started, but I have one bit of advice: Make sure that you’re creating a community network filled with technologists and disability activists. I understand that many are initially driven to find out the answers to technical implementation questions, design guidelines, and the ins and outs of the legalities of compliance. We look to the accessibility specialists for guidance, and so it should be, however, it is imperative that the voices of people with disabilities also serve as your point of reference. They are, after all, the reason why we are concerned about accessibility in the first place and who better than they to inform us as to their frustrations and concerns.
Because my mentee is fairly new to the web development community (six months in) I have asked him do the following:
(1) Follow disability activists on LinkedIn or Twitter: Emily Ladau, Haben Girma, Alice Wong, Judy Heumann, Andrea Dalzell, Imani Barbarin,
(2) Follow accessibility technologists and advocates on LinkedIn or Twitter: Sheri Bryne-Haber, Meryl Evans, Matt May, Thomas Logan, Marcy Sutton, Regine Gilbert, Carie Fisher, Jennison Asuncion, Samantha Evans, Denis Boudreau, Léonie Watson
(3) Research select accessibility conferences: Deque’s Axe-Con, CSUN, Knowbility’s John Slatin AccessU, Inclusive Design 24
(4) Join a couple online accessibility Meetup groups: A11yNYC, The A11y Global Collective
(5) Join the A11y Slack channel
Explore certifications as a confidence building tool
The body of knowledge for practicing accessibility is immense. For those just getting started in the tech industry, it can be difficult to know how to build your knowledge base. I believe the IAAP CPACC and WAS certifications for digital accessibility to be a fantastic tool to build up confidence and technical know-how. Per their website:
“The IAAP Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) credential is IAAP’s foundational certification, representing broad, cross-disciplinary conceptual knowledge about 1) disabilities, 2) accessibility and universal design, and 3) accessibility-related standards, laws, and management strategies.”
“The (WAS) Technical-level credential is intended for accessibility professionals who are expected to evaluate the accessibility of existing content or objects according to published technical standards and guidelines, and provide detailed remediation recommendations. They are expected to know and use the relevant technologies, not merely be aware of them.”
Let me just say that I do understand that it’s not required that accessibility professionals hold these certifications. However, I really believe that the work that goes into preparing for these examinations will build confidence. Plus, for those new to the tech industry, these certifications are one way to demonstrate your awareness of disability and commitment to accessibility.
For the next month my mentee will:
(1) Read about the CPACC and WAS certification exam information.
(2) Attend a drop-in session with the IAAP to learn more about the certifications. Check out the registration here.
(2) Read about the International Association of Accessibility Professionals and the various supports they offer including membership communities and professional development opportunities.
In our next session we will discuss and unpack a lot of this information. I will also plan to walk my mentee through the process of building out a basic webpage integrating accessibility considerations and practices at each step of the process. Unfortunately, if bootcamp organizers know what accessibility is (they often don’t) then they typically consider accessibility an “extra” that they don’t have time for in their frantic drive to create a new developer or designer. The is a pet peeve of mine and I plan to remedy it with my mentee. I’ll detail that mentorship exercise in my next post!
