About the event
2-day community summit for developers, designers & accessibility enthusiasts, jointly run by a11y meetups from all over Europe · Jun 8th-9th, 2024 · Amsterdam, Netherlands
Schedule
Time | Agenda item |
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- | Accessibility 101This session is explicitly aimed at all those who are new to accessibility and would like to familiarise themselves with the most basic concepts and terms of accessibility before the actual event. The presenters will guide you through the key principles and ensure that you have a better understanding of some of the day's topics. The session is designed to give you more confidence and understanding of the broad field of accessibility and allow for an initial exchange with like-minded enthusiasts. This session is explicitly aimed at all those who are new to accessibility and would like to familiarise themselves with the most basic concepts and terms of accessibility before the actual event. The presenters will guide you through the key principles and ensure that you have a better understanding of some of the day's topics. The session is designed to give you more confidence and understanding of the broad field of accessibility and allow for an initial exchange with like-minded enthusiasts. Performed by |
- | Doors open |
- | Opening Performed by |
- | GAAD Foundation: Who We Are and What We DoJennison Asuncion, Co-Founder of the GAAD Foundation will spend a few minutes talking about the mission and work of the foundation and how you can get involved. Performed by |
- | Session planning |
- | Embedding a11y in your design processDesigners play a very important role in the accessibility of products. With almost 80% of the WCAG pointing out to their direction they become the key to creating inclusive experiences that leave no one out. Let’s explore those guidelines and the tools that can help design accessibility to become part of our everyday work. More and more companies realize that addressing accessibility issues during production is neither sustainable nor cost-effective and harms the user experience and the reputation of their products. Shifting accessibility left, to the earlier stages of the product cycle, is essential, with designers holding the keys to decisions that can have a significant impact. Unfortunately, many designers have not been exposed to accessibility concepts during their studies and face a steep learning curve. WCAG is here to help, and this talk aims to simplify these guidelines, highlight the main points to focus on, and introduce tools that will assist designers in integrating accessibility into their work and culture. Performed by |
- | Decoding the Impact: Accessibility Overlays Through a Scientific LensAccessibility overlays are heavily criticised within the accessibility community regarding their effectiveness and whether they meet the needs of the intended user group. This talk details the impact accessibility overlays actually have on usability and user experience, backed by academic research. Access to digital information is crucial for social inclusion and equal opportunities. Unfortunately, most websites contain accessibility errors, creating a significant barrier for users with impairments. Accessibility overlays have emerged as a potential solution. However, despite their intended benefits and rapid market growth, accessibility overlays face significant criticism within the accessibility community. Various voices question their effectiveness and whether they meet the needs of the intended user group. This talk details the actual impact accessibility overlays have on usability and user experience, backed by recent academic research. The results of a technical evaluation and research conducted with individuals with permanent visual impairments will be presented and discussed, adding new and supplementary information to the discussion. Performed by |
- | Modern CSS Upgrades To Improve AccessibilityModern CSS provides capabilities we can leverage to make layouts and components more accessibly inclusive for users of all abilities across any device. You'll learn about adjustments to focus states, spacing, color, and more. CSS features and behaviors have grown exponentially over the past few years, so let's dive into features that can enhance the accessibility of interactive experiences. Most features are well supported across evergreen browsers so you can start using them right away! Others make for excellent progressive enhancements, meaning they will provide an even more optimal experience when used in a supporting browser. We'll also sneak a peek at incoming features that directly impact accessibility, and that you can provide feedback on to the CSS Working Group. While encouraging the development of inclusive experiences is the goal of this talk, you're sure to learn some new things about CSS to extend and apply in multiple scenarios. Performed by |
- | Lunch break |
- | “Built-in” accessibility: blessing or curse?There's talk of “building in” accessibility, but the risk of overpromise and disappointment is real. This talk proposes some ways to be effective at removing barriers from your products at scale. “We'll build in accessibility”, they say. Whether it's in standards, browser functionality, web platform features or design system components … the resulting reality could be anywhere from an enormous opportunity to a huge disappointment. There's something at stake here. And as an accessibility specialist, you should probably ask questions. In this talk, we'll look at how “built in” can be effective and how it helps NL Design System to remove barriers at scale. Performed by |
- | Android Accessibility: Do or DoThis presentation shows the main accessibility problems users face and what to do with them. It is more convenient for blind people to use a smartphone than a computer! Of course, this statement is not true for everyone, but there are more and more smartphone users, and mobile operating systems are very quickly developing an accessible environment. Creating an application and uploading it to the store is also becoming easier. But these apps are often inaccessible to users with disabilities and do not work properly with accessibility settings (such as larger fonts). Glafira will go through the main problems that users face and tell you what to do with them. Performed by |
- | Navigating the Accessibility Journey: From Proof-of-Concept to Organisation ModelThis talk will explore how to integrate accessibility into design and development processes. Anastasiia will share not just their successes but also the mistakes they made. Learn about raising awareness, building a team, planning, and the challenge of convincing stakeholders. With the European Accessibility Act coming up in June 2025, it’s likely you’ll need to start thinking more about making your products accessible. How do you get started, and who will help you do it? Anastasiia will share her journey of promoting accessibility within the organization: starting from initial advocacy and awareness, to executing a proof-of-concept that demonstrated the tangible benefits, and finally, developing a comprehensive strategy to integrate accessibility across the entire department. The presentation will cover the practical steps taken, challenges encountered, and valuable lessons learned along the way. This session is for anyone who wants to know how to build a team, pitch a vision, and scale accessibility practices effectively within an organization. Performed by |
- | Closing Performed by |
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- | Accessibility of FormsForms are the #1 method for users to interact on a website — with the site owner or with each other. Forms are how content is created and how visitors convert to customers. By volume, issues with forms outnumber all other issue types. During this full-day workshop attendees will learn the numerous challenges that people with disabilities have when using forms and how to design and develop more accessible forms. During a highly interactive and collaborative hands-on workshop, attendees will go through the process of planning, designing, and developing a form. Throughout several breakout sessions, attendees will collaborate on tasks that include:
Along the way the attendees will be creating their own form and testing their form for usability and accessibility. Workshop by |
- | Beyond CSS: JavaScript Requirements for Accessible ComponentsCSS is more capable than ever, leading to a new generation of hacks under the banner of “No-JS”. While reducing reliance on JS is usually admirable, some CSS-only hacks leave a significant amount of users unable to use your interface. Join this workshop to learn how to build several common components, why CSS isn't sufficient for covering accessibility, and the necessary JavaScript requirements. Solutions will be vanilla-JS with no framework reliance, although we will also discuss how to evaluate ready-made components for accessibility. You'll leave the workshop with a toolbox for building accessible:
Workshop by |
- | DIY Accessibility testingEverybody can test for accessibility. You don't need years of experience to contribute to accessible products. This workshop will teach you how. In this short timespan I will show you a quick way to assess a website (or other digital product). You'll learn to test common aspects like keyboard accessibility, contrast, text alternatives and sizing. It doesn't matter wether you're a manager, developer, designer or writer. You can find easily fixable improvements that include people and benefit everybody. You'll learn a skill that you can use and apply everywhere! Workshop by |