SXSW: Catching Up with Accessibility--The Basics Quickly

Had a wonderful, inspiring panel given by Shawn Henry of the W3C on accessibility this morning to kick off the interactive panels. She brought to light how important it is to include various accessibility features when building a site. And it doesn't just apply to those who are deaf or blind. Age is also an issue in discerning contrast in colors.

Testing should be done with screen readers and header and list tags must be used appropriately. This allows those with disabilities to use the reader to scan the page for content areas (navigation is one of them as well).

Links should be coded so that the actual links aren't "click here" but rather the benefit or action. This assists in making the site usable for those using a link scanner. It also benefits the business by increasing the marketing highlight on those key words (not to mention boosting SEO rankings).

I'll write more and fill in some blanks later. Here are some of the resource links she provides. This is a picture of one of my later panels. Susan may also be posting here as well so stay posted!