A11y Rules Podcast

Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2020 Special

Nicolas Steenhout — Thu, 21 May 2020 04:01:09 +0000

Global Awareness Accessibility Day 2020! This is the third year I’m having a special episode for this event. I started with panel discussions for the day – and was planning on keeping that up. However, technical issues limited our ability to come together and have an actual discussion. So I got my guests to record their answers and this is the show. Thanks to Donna Vitan, Alicia Jarvis, Katriel Paige, and Matt May!

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E097 – Interview with Joe Devon – Part 2

Nicolas Steenhout — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 20:47:19 +0000

Joe Devon says the one thing people should remember about accessibility is that building great products is about listening to your user. And if you are not making your products accessible, you are not paying attention to your users.

Continue Reading E097 – Interview with Joe Devon – Part 2

E096 – Interview with Joe Devon – Part 1

Nicolas Steenhout — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 17:37:59 +0000

Joe Devon tells us that lot of accessibility is knowing the culture and different communities that view it differently.

Continue Reading E096 – Interview with Joe Devon – Part 1

E095 – Interview with Devon Persing – Part 2

Nicolas Steenhout — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 13:00:34 +0000

Devon Persing and I talk a little bit about burnout in the web accessibility industry.

Continue Reading E095 – Interview with Devon Persing – Part 2

E094 – Interview with Devon Persing – Part 1

Nicolas Steenhout — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 21:43:17 +0000

Devon Persing tells us that the compliance model doesn’t capture the whole picture of accessibility. And it feels like a separate thing from design/dev work.

Continue Reading E094 – Interview with Devon Persing – Part 1

E093 – Interview with Tony Coelho – Part 2

Nicolas Steenhout — Thu, 05 Mar 2020 19:36:52 +0000

Congressman Tony Coelho tells us that people with disabilities must have the right to fail. Without failure you can’t learn from the mistake. Without failure there’s no growth. Without a right to fail, your growth is stunted.

Continue Reading E093 – Interview with Tony Coelho – Part 2

E092 – Interview with Tony Coelho – Part 1

Nicolas Steenhout — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 04:01:06 +0000

Congressman Tony Coelho talks about his life with a disability, his journey of working for the People, and how he introduced the ADA.

Continue Reading E092 – Interview with Tony Coelho – Part 1

E089 – Interview with Amberley Romo – Part 2

Nicolas Steenhout — Tue, 20 Aug 2019 13:00:07 +0000

Emily states: “Hardest part of the job is coming up with solutions. It’s one thing to identify what’s wrong, it’s entirely another thing to give clients an alternative solution that’s accessible to start with but also reasonable for them to implement.”

Continue Reading E090 – Interview with Emily Lewis – Part 1

E091- Interview with Emily Lewis – Part 2

Nicolas Steenhout — Tue, 27 Aug 2019 22:28:35 +0000

Emily Lewis said: Accessibility is not about screen readers or keyboard navigation or code. It’s about people. And them being able to access information and resources, community… all of it

Continue Reading E091- Interview with Emily Lewis – Part 2

E089 – Interview with Amberley Romo – Part 2

Nicolas Steenhout — Tue, 20 Aug 2019 13:00:07 +0000

About one thing everyone knows about accessibility… Amberley says: “I think everyone knows when something is not acceptable to them”

Continue Reading E089 – Interview with Amberley Romo – Part 2

E088 – Interview with Amberley Romo – Part 1

Nicolas Steenhout — Wed, 07 Aug 2019 13:00:54 +0000

Amberley defines web accessibility as “building for the web in ways that ensure it’s usable by everyone. There aren’t barriers to use for anyone. So, I would say it’s about digital equal access, kind of along the same lines as physical equal access. So, just putting people at the center of building for the web.”

Continue Reading E088 – Interview with Amberley Romo – Part 1

E086 – Interview with Christopher Schmitt – Part 1

Nicolas Steenhout — Tue, 09 Jul 2019 13:00:10 +0000

Christopher says that for someone who likes Design so much, he didn’t realize how important good color contrast was, and how bad color contrast issues are.

Continue Reading E086 – Interview with Christopher Schmitt – Part 1

E085 – Interview with Jessica Ivins – Part 2

Nicolas Steenhout — Sat, 22 Jun 2019 16:14:39 +0000

Jessica suggests that accessibility is a competitive advantage. The more people can use your product, the more likely they are to spend money on it.

Continue Reading E085 – Interview with Jessica Ivins – Part 2

E084 – Interview with Jessica Ivins – Part 1

Nicolas Steenhout — Sat, 15 Jun 2019 00:15:07 +0000

Jessica and I ponder whether low-literacy could be considered a disability, and regardless of the answer, that factor needs to be taken into account when designing sites and content.

Continue Reading E084 – Interview with Jessica Ivins – Part 1

E083 – Interview with Stephanie Walter – Part 2

Nicolas Steenhout — Mon, 27 May 2019 17:49:36 +0000

Stephanie Walter says there’s a lot of things she thought everybody knew about accessibility that actually not a lot of people knew. So, she thinks in general people know that somewhere on the internet some people are blind.

Continue Reading E083 – Interview with Stephanie Walter – Part 2

E082 – Interview with Stephanie Walter – Part 1

Nicolas Steenhout — Fri, 24 May 2019 23:39:00 +0000

Stephanie Walter tells us that designers should provide a roadmap to their design for the developer, but in many projects, there just isn’t time to do that.

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Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2019 Special Episode

Nicolas Steenhout — Thu, 16 May 2019 04:01:45 +0000

To highlight Global Awareness Accessibility Day, I had a wonderful panel discussion with four people involved in accessibility: Courey Elliott, Dennis Lembrée, Shannon Finnegan, and Dan O’Mahony

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E081 – Interview with Damien Senger – Part 2

Nicolas Steenhout — Tue, 07 May 2019 15:58:20 +0000

Damien tells us “Later does not exist in our industry. Don’t push something without accessibility now. Because you will NOT go back and fix it later”

Continue Reading E081 – Interview with Damien Senger – Part 2

E080 – Interview with Damien Senger – Part 1

Nicolas Steenhout — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 19:45:02 +0000

In which Damien Senger tells us “Universal design is the answer, more than accessibility. Because people are on a spectrum.”

Continue Reading E080 – Interview with Damien Senger – Part 1

E078 – Interview with Liz Jackson – Part 1

Nicolas Steenhout — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 23:11:56 +0000

In which Liz Jackson tells us she wishes people viewed accessibility as an opportunity to engage, rather than a legal compliance thing.

Continue Reading E079 – Interview with Liz Jackson – Part 2

E078 – Interview with Liz Jackson – Part 1

Nicolas Steenhout — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 23:11:56 +0000

Liz Jackson says it’s not enough to fix accessibility, people with disabilities must be included. She says: “I think somebody thinks that if they just smooth something out and they make it usable that we won’t have feelings about it. But, we are a people that probably hungers for choice, right? Like, we want to have opinions about things. We want to be delighted. So to simply try and smooth something out and endeavor no further, I think is… we’re missing something.”

Continue Reading E078 – Interview with Liz Jackson – Part 1

E77 – Interview with Amy Carney – Part 2

Nicolas Steenhout — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 19:11:52 +0000

Amy Carney tells us accessibility is not just a checklist of standards but that we really are building experience for people and allowing them to open up opportunities.

Continue Reading E77 – Interview with Amy Carney – Part 2

E76 – Interview with Amy Carney – Part 1

Nicolas Steenhout — Mon, 01 Apr 2019 23:12:42 +0000

Amy Carney tells us that accessibility “comes down to a design perspective. We’re designing to include people, specifically people with disabilities. And that is based on enabling people with disabilities to access content and web applications online.”

Continue Reading E76 – Interview with Amy Carney – Part 1

E75 – Interview with Alli Berry – Part 2

Nicolas Steenhout — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 02:05:17 +0000

Alli says that getting the right people in the same room at the start of a project is very difficult and can impede accessibility.

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E74 – Interview with Alli Berry – Part 1

Nicolas Steenhout — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 16:32:48 +0000

Alli tells us how experiencing lack of accessibility for a classmate of hers in the built environment helped her understand the importance of accessibility on the web.

Continue Reading E74 – Interview with Alli Berry – Part 1

E73 – Interview with Jen Luker – Part 2

Nicolas Steenhout — Mon, 11 Mar 2019 16:54:49 +0000

Jen tells us to start accessibility today, to start with one thing. Then to do one more thing, and then one more.

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E72 – Interview with Jen Luker – Part 1

Nicolas Steenhout — Thu, 07 Mar 2019 18:00:37 +0000

Jen Luker tells us, among other things, that with thoroughness comes confusion – if you’re trying to learn all of WCAG and ARIA at once, you’ll get overwhelmed

Continue Reading E72 – Interview with Jen Luker – Part 1

E71 – Interview with Chris DeMars – Part 2

Nicolas Steenhout — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 20:26:54 +0000

Chris tells us “the biggest challenge that [the accessibility community is] going to have, and it currently stands now, is the never-ending library framework”

Continue Reading E71 – Interview with Chris DeMars – Part 2

E70 – Interview with Chris DeMars – Part 1

Nicolas Steenhout — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 17:04:21 +0000

Chris is a front-end developer based in Detroit, MI. He tells us, among other things, that learning about accessibility is an ongoing process.

Continue Reading E70 – Interview with Chris DeMars – Part 1

E69 – Interview with Ire Aderinokun – Part 2

Nicolas Steenhout — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 13:00:39 +0000

In which Ire tells us that she thinks convincing framework developers to implement accessibility will have more impact than trying to change individual developers’ minds.

Continue Reading E69 – Interview with Ire Aderinokun – Part 2

E68 – Interview with Ire Aderinokun – Part 1

Nicolas Steenhout — Thu, 17 Jan 2019 13:00:56 +0000

In the first part of my interview, Ire Aderinokun tells us that accessibility will not take you a massive effort if you’re using HTML correctly.

Ire is a front-end developer and user interface designer. She currently is working on a startup called Buy Coins.

Continue Reading E68 – Interview with Ire Aderinokun – Part 1

E67 – Interview with Beth Raduenzel – Part 2

Nicolas Steenhout — Fri, 07 Dec 2018 18:07:38 +0000

Continuing my chat with Beth. We discuss, among other things, accessibility as a coding challenge vs having to meet tight deadlines – and how sometimes developers chose to do things the way they know to meet these deadlines.

Continue Reading E67 – Interview with Beth Raduenzel – Part 2

E66 – Interview with Beth Raduenzel – Part 1

Nicolas Steenhout — Thu, 29 Nov 2018 18:40:37 +0000

Beth is an accessibility specialist and a UX interaction designer. She was part of an award winning team at United. She compares acceptance of the need for accessibility as the 5 stages of grief.

Continue Reading E66 – Interview with Beth Raduenzel – Part 1

E65 – Interview with Marcy Sutton – Part 2

Nicolas Steenhout — Fri, 23 Nov 2018 01:34:11 +0000

Marcy tells us that her greatest frustration is that for all of the energy that we put into this all the time it feels like we’re stagnant in terms of accessibility actually getting done. And that it’s hard not to get derailed by that.

Continue Reading E65 – Interview with Marcy Sutton – Part 2

E64 – Interview with Marcy Sutton – Part 1

Nicolas Steenhout — Thu, 15 Nov 2018 18:15:43 +0000

Marcy tells us that it’s important for folks in the accessibility community to listen to developers’ needs. She also states that we ought to be more positive, and to stop making people feel bad about accessibility!

Continue Reading E64 – Interview with Marcy Sutton – Part 1

E63 – Interview with Eric Bailey – Part 2

Nicolas Steenhout — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 16:00:17 +0000

Eric tells us accessibility shouldn’t be just technical curiosity. It’s about people.

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E62 – Interview with Eric Bailey – Part 1

Nicolas Steenhout — Mon, 29 Oct 2018 17:00:40 +0000

Eric tells us, among other things, that relationship building is a good way to get passed the hostility some people have towards accessibility.

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E61 – Interview with Alex Brenon

Nicolas Steenhout — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 13:53:01 +0000

Alex is a developer who has experienced the difference between baking in accessibility from the start compared to trying to retrofit accessibility into an existing project – which leads to a lot of trial and error and wasted time.

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E60 – Interview with Adrienne McDonnell

Nicolas Steenhout — Fri, 05 Oct 2018 13:27:37 +0000

Adrienne McDonnell is a front end developer at Elsevier. She says that knowing how to navigate a site with the keyboard is a fundational skill that all developers should know. She also reflects on the fact that all the accessibility specifications are very dense and can be overwhelming for people new to accessibility.

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2018 International Podcast Day Special

Nicolas Steenhout — Sun, 30 Sep 2018 04:01:39 +0000

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E59 – Interview with John Tubbs

Nicolas Steenhout — Thu, 27 Sep 2018 14:00:05 +0000

John Tubbs is an educator working for about thirty years in the area of high tech, digital education, online learning. He discusses accessibility and accomodations for students with disabilities – a topic we don’t hear enough about. He points out that his team is working towards universal accessible documents that can later be customized, rather than wait students to request accommodations and then scramble to make it happen.

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E58 – Interview with Jen Simmons – Part 2

Nicolas Steenhout — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 21:06:09 +0000

Jen says that many of the needs for accessibility aren’t that hard to accommodate by developers and designers! I couldn’t agree more.

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E57 – Interview with Jen Simmons – Part 1

Nicolas Steenhout — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 13:00:46 +0000

I love what Jen had to say about accessibility! She said, among other things: “accessibility is about the recognition that every human isn’t identical to every other human.”

Continue Reading E57 – Interview with Jen Simmons – Part 1

E56 – Interview with Becky Gibson – Part 2

Nicolas Steenhout — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 12:25:08 +0000

Becky talks about accessibility needing to be in the curriculum for all computer science courses – and I couldn’t agree more!

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E55 – Interview with Becky Gibson – Part 1

Nicolas Steenhout — Thu, 30 Aug 2018 13:51:10 +0000

In this episode, Becky talks to us about how changes in technology has changed her perception of accessibility. She also tells us how she came to be so passionate about accessibility!

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E54 – Interview with Nic Steenhout – Part 2

Nicolas Steenhout — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 22:21:46 +0000

“It’s a frustration of mine that too often when somebody asks me a question about accessibility, the only answer I can really give if I want to be succinct is, “It depends”.”

Continue Reading E54 – Interview with Nic Steenhout – Part 2

E53 – Interview with Nic Steenhout – Part 1

Nicolas Steenhout — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 13:40:13 +0000

In a role reversal, for the first episode of the second year of the show – I’m the one being interviewed Léonie Watson was kind enough to chat with me. It was fun to be on the other side of things

Continue Reading E53 – Interview with Nic Steenhout – Part 1

E52 – Interview with Eric Meyer – Part 2

Nicolas Steenhout — Thu, 09 Aug 2018 14:16:11 +0000

Eric says that accessibility “is a foundational principle of the web. Like literally the web is built on accessibility. The original specs don’t necessarily call it that, but that’s an organizing principle of the web. And to try to ignore it or overcome it is a lot like trying to paddle upstream”.

Continue Reading E52 – Interview with Eric Meyer – Part 2

E51 – Interview with Eric Meyer – Part 1

Nicolas Steenhout — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 14:42:04 +0000

Eric talks about accessibility, of course, and semantics, and frameworks, and more! The web prioritises ubiquity over consistency and a lot of these– there have been a lot of attempts to prioritise consistency over ubiquity.

Continue Reading E51 – Interview with Eric Meyer – Part 1