Universal design for the web

Thursday 14 September 2017 from 9.00am - 12.30pm (half day)

In this workshop, you’ll learn the core principles of universal design and how to apply them to digital interfaces with the goal of providing the best possible experience for all users, regardless of their abilities. We’ll explore a variety of structural and interactive patterns for clear, flexible, inclusive user interfaces, and look at some examples of these patterns in use.

You’ll then jump into a hands-on activity, working in groups to mockup designs for a web app with some challenging pre-existing constraints. Iterating on these mockups through a series of brainstorm and critique cycles with peers, you'll practice the universal design techniques you’ve learned and hone in on a design (or a few) that prioritizes usability for all. You’ll also hopefully come away from this workshop with a good sense of where universal design fits into the product design/development cycle (spoiler: at every stage!).

This workshop is best suited for anyone who’s part of a product lifecycle, whether that be at the research, ideation, design, or development stage.

This workshop will be delivered by Cordelia McGee-Tubb. Cordelia is a developer, designer, and cartoonist focused on making the web better for everyone. She’s a lead accessibility engineer at Salesforce and previously led web accessibility at Dropbox. An advocate for digital literacy, Cordelia teaches basic computer and internet skills to senior citizens. In her spare time, she draws autobiographical comics and collects hats shaped like food.

ARIA and accessibility

Thursday 14 September 2017 from 1.00pm - 4.30pm (half day)

This course is for anyone who want to learn more about the practical use of ARIA. Participants do not need to have any knowledge of ARIA, but should have a basic understanding of HTML. The course will introduce ARIA, discuss its common misuse, explore roles, states and properties, then delve into some real-world examples. Along the way, there will be some quick hands-on exercises.

Outline:

• Introduction
• Understanding roles
• Understanding states and properties
• Adding meaning to elements
• Live regions
• Common problems and how ARIA can help

The A11y Camp workshops are held one day after the A11y Camp conference which will be on 13 September.