Introducing accessibility for web applications — chapter one
Is it important to code with accessibility in mind?
The first thing I want you keep in your mind is the following sentence:
Every people should have the right of use the softwares you develop
If I wanted to finish this introduction here probably would be enough, but I think that this theme is so serious that I want to expand this a little bit.
It’s important to say that I’m a brazilian and I will use here numbers and information about accessibility from Brazil. This is only an english version of a Brazilian content.
The problem
I’m not here to write denouncings about companies that think accessibility isn’t important. But we need to agree something sounds wrong. The “Revista Galileu ‘’ (A know magazine in Brazil) declares in their text wrote at 23 Mai 2020–09h09, that only 0.74% of brazilians sites are accessible.
Is it weird isn’t? 45 millions of people can’t access the web. Less than 1% of our content is accessible, it shows that maybe this discussion isn’t so interesting for most part of companies.
But the real important question should be: “Do you care about web accessibility when you are developing?”
Look, we are able to be good programmers but still incomplete professionals. You reading this text probably works as a front-end developer or maybe as web designer. Accessibility must be part of your plans. If you are working without this part you are being an incomplete professional.
The good news is that we are always improving ourselves, and I believe if you understand the importance of this you will try to get it better.
It’s common to see people fighting for circumstances that they face in their lives. If you have someone blind in your family, you probably want to make the difference for blind people have a better life as any human deserves to live. But do we really need to wait for something to happen with us or our family to have empathy?
The excuses
“Big piece of my users aren’t people with dificiency” — Well, if these people can’t access your products they will never be an user. Right?
“We haven’t time to implement accessibility features” — When we code with accessibility in mind, the cost is cheaper than try to apply later.
“My boss don’t care about it” — And you?
People with deficiency in Brazil as we can read in the LouisBraille scholl website, represents 23.9% percent of our population. Remembering you that I’m not talking to you only about blind people, but dyslexics, deafs, people with mental deficiency and others.
Would be awesome if these people could have the same opportunities that people who hasn’t deficiencies has. But it’s not true. What can we do?
Tecnology has power to help
There is an information in the IBGE page that our country has more than 74% of people with internet access. If you start to provide your services with quality for all, you may help people to feel included and able to do what everybody should be able to do.
Is difficult to code with accessibility?
No, it is not so difficult to code with accessibility. You will see in the next chapters that its really possible to code with accessibility without spend mutch time.
However, to test if your code is accessible its a little more complex. We will use tools to help to test, but an effective test would be only with people that has this difficulties, giving you feedbacks as a stakeholder in the proccess of software creation.
I know its not possible to test like that 100% of the time, but the “ideal world” would be that.
Believe me in something, even you haven’t people with deficiency to test your software, you can open a door for people whose never has this chance in other products. And people with deficiency has pleasure to help you with feedbacks if you try help them, I have a sure.
What do I intend with all this?
I intend to write free texts about web accessibility that may help you to start your own way.
I will separate texts in chapters, showing how to do practical things to write and code web pages with accessibility in mind.
Consider this text will come as a community offer. The texts will be very practical and short, directly to the point as a handbook style. Would you come with me? If your answer is “yes”, I see you later =)
A word! This is a totally free project to really help the community. The frequency of texts are not scheduled.
