I get asked these questions all the time at our Refresh Detroit and Metro Detroit WordPress meetup groups:
We know our organization needs to improve web accessibility.
Where do we start?
How do we get a strategy in place?
How do we make sure it’s successful?
Those aren’t uncommon questions for organizations.
My Own Experience
When I worked on the web services team at the community college, there was no organizational strategy for improving accessibility.
Sure, our team members knew about the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
We documented steps for writing content, ensuring good color contrast, and creating accessible PDFs.
And I remember the move (finally!) replacing hundreds of PDFs with online web forms and HTML pages.
But there were areas in our development practices that needed improvement when it came to accessibility.
For example, I remember a long discussion about not using tabindex on pages. I was glad to have supporting evidence to show why it wasn’t a good practice.
If the college had an overall accessibility strategy, it would have included not only the web services team, but everyone at the college.
And that’s why I’m excited to learn about The Paciello Group’s webinar.
Evaluating Organizational Readiness for Accessibility
In her April 18, 2019 webinar, Evaluating Organizational Readiness for Accessibility, Sarah Horton, strategy lead at The Paciello Group, will discuss building a successful accessibility program at your organization.
This webinar will help you:
- Better understand where your organization is now, in respect to accessibility
- Learn where your organization can go
- Guide people toward supporting accessibility in their work
- Create a framework for building out your accessibility program
Hosted by The Paciello Group (TPG), the webinar will be held at noon Eastern Time on Thursday, April 18, 2019.
While the webinar is free, pre-registration is required.
Speaker Biography
Sarah Horton is currently Strategy Lead with TPG. Previously, Horton worked as Web Strategy Project Lead at Harvard University and Director of Web Strategy and Design at Dartmouth College.
She is co-author with Whitney Quesenbery of A Web for Everyone: Designing Accessible User Experiences, one of my favorite accessibility books.
Join Me!
Hope you’ll join me at the webinar! I’m looking forward to hearing Horton share her insights on creating a strategic plan for digital accessibility.
As they did for their February webinar on Web Accessibility Initiative resources, TPG will be using Zoom, one of the most accessible video conference services for the webinar.
