2019 Accessibility Blog Wrap-up
Links to my most read stories, most impactful stories, and favorite stories
Photo by NordWood Themes on Unsplash
In November 2018, I set a goal of writing 100 accessibility articles before the end of 2019. I met that goal, and then some. Here are some of my readers’ favorite articles (and mine) that I’ve written over the past year.
Thank you for reading, and I look forward to writing more content on accessibility, disability, and diversity/inclusion in 2020.
Most Widely Read
Accessibility and Dark UI Themes — As of December 30, this article has been read more than 5000 times, a goal that I did not even dream of when I first started writing.
Designing Toast Messages for Accessibility — Rather than having readership drop off steeply two weeks after publication, this article has had steady readership the entire year, presumably as more organizations have started looking at complying with WCAG 2.1.
How to Identify a Toxic Accessibility Culture — 2500 reads for an article entirely focused on bad accessibility program traits? I didn’t think there were that many people interested in this topic.
Hiring an Accessibility Tester? Here is an approach you should consider — This is the article that started it all. The popularity of this article kicked off an entire series of related articles including:
Personas and Disabilities — This article had so much unexpected interest I’ve expanded it into a 90-minute IAAP Webinar which I will be giving live next May. It will also be available later as a recording. Stay tuned for that one!
Most Impactful
Advice for the Aspiring Accessibility Tester — This is the article that I’ve referred people to more often than any other. It is perfect for people thinking about a career change, or just getting out of school. I also gave an expanded version of this article as a talk at the Accessibility Camp Bay Area last February.
Cost per hour for Accessibility Testing — This article educated both buyers and providers of accessibility services on what is a reasonable rate of compensation for basic accessibility testing services
ADA lawsuit costs are way more than just the settlement — Many articles talk about legal fees and settlement agreement payments as the fallout from getting sued over inaccessibility. This one is the first article that I’ve seen that talks about the complete lawsuit picture, including opportunity costs.
My Favorites
Separate but Equal is Never OK — Having a separate accessible website being considered acceptable is one of my greatest fears as an accessibility manager. Fortunately, a large government organization said this approach is not OK and issued a hefty fine for their opinion.
Top 10 accessibility/disability TED talks and videos — Sometimes the best ideas for future articles come from comments that people leave on old articles, or private messages sent to me on LinkedIn.
You might be #Diversish if … The hashtag #diversish was coined after the 2019 Davos economic summit. It effectively means “Diversity programs that don’t consider disability as part of diversity” This article looks at the elements that might make a company diversish.