Accessibility advocacy

I started my accessible (a11y) education back with the Web Standards Group in the early 2000’s, starting the London chapter of the WSG in 2003 and supporting the Sydney chapter when I arrived in 2008. I was hand-coding training manuals and technical documents in HTML 4 with minimal CSS and no JavaScript. It’s where I learned the value of semantic HTML and how it’s a great start for accessible websites without having to create separate ones for people who use screen readers. A detailed knowledge of good semantic HTML is a great first step in accessible web content.

The next big step was when I worked at Stamford Interactive and I conducted dozens of audits for gov and consumer sites. We had a great reporting template and I contributed to several updates and variations to the process. I carried the processes I learned and adapted from there to contracts at startups and large organisations. I wrote large portions of the AccessIQ online a11y tool during 2012-13.

Central to my methodology is to consider all users and conditions in the design process. I expanded my a11y contributions at IAG several times as I returned there often for specific projects, mostly for NRMA but also across their service suite. While they were building their new GEL (Global Experience Language), I reviewed and updated the accessibility of the design patterns implemented.

At Objective Corporation I was the a11y expert, designing accessible wireframes, prototypes and workflows, while leading a11y education across the local and remote dev teams, fielding weekly a11y questions and bugs. During testing I often sought people with disabilities at client locations and widened my tool set to spot issues early and suggest resolutions for the team. I created a research methodology and user input design patterns that they continued to learn from, years after I left. I took that framework forward in my work, improving and learning as I progressed. The pattern involved teaching the value and methods of accessible markup to the devs and supporting their exploration into  

At ADHA I led education and deployment of  a11y initiatives- improving conformance with all products before approaching external audits and interpreting audit findings to assist designers and devs to resolve issues and improve WCAG compliance. I contributed to conformance summaries for the SEC and board and wrote statements for a11y public interest groups and senate estimates responses.

Inclusivity and accessibility is important in delivering public digital services

Conforming to a11y in browsers, particularly if considered from the start, automatically makes the interface easier to use for everyone, not only people with disabilities. Starting accessibly reduces the cost of fixing it later. That’s economically responsible and efficient.

Inclusivity as a design concept to me means you are designing with people and not for people, where diversity of ability, culture, context and condition is included from the beginning. I consider inclusivity a process and not a step, where the people affected by a service have a significant voice in the design of it.

There are legal requirements to deliver services to all citizens at several levels. It’s declared in the Australian Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  I consider it good design practice to design for all people, from the foundation, without having to resort to legal conformance. Being a good service provider shouldn’t be under threat but with conscientiousness and respect.

a11y Community building

I founded the London Web Standards Group in 2006 and am still in touch with the current organisers.  

Joining IxDA Sydney and taking it over in 2013, leading it, and ensuring an accessibility-focussed event at least once if not twice a year. I and my colleagues created a design community and a standard for what meetups could be, running up to 15 events a year before COVID reduced that to only a few online events. when selecting venues for presentations, workshops, mentoring and other events we always selected accessible venues to accommodate all our members.

I respectfully direct and assist developers to appreciate the difference between “can make accessible” and “is proven accessible” and that an automated tool is no match for knowledge about good markup and functionality. describing accessible patterns in requirements, designs and. prototypes for developers reduced time spent for the project.

I share content assessment tools to communication, policy and marketing teams to help them write more accessible text and understand the needs of people with modest education, cognitive disabilities and reading English as a second language.

Tools and methods

As a former front and back end developer and an early member of the Web Standards Group I was an early advocate of conformant and semantic markup. The separation of  structure from style and function is a cornerstone of both WSG and WCAG. I have been applying WAI-ARIA since my days at Stamford (2010-2012) where we were required to supply recommended solutions to a11y issues as part of the report. WAI-ARIA was often the only option without dismantling too much of the underlying framework and although my policy was to make it work with native elements, it was a good way to extend that conformance for a wider range of scenarios.

HTML/CSS/JS isn’t the usual way to display content and functionality in apps so the best option is to assess apps on the underlying principles of WCAG and I am glad to see more understanding of the methods that can be used for apps and the more recent WCAG 2.2 guidelines. With the ADHA’s my health gov app it was enlightening to hear results from participants with cognitive disabilities to better understand how they used information apps and led me to change how we approached content and navigation.

WCAG 2.2 Level AA

For the past 15 years I have continuously expressed the need for WCAG conformance and the value of universal design; whether formal or informal, as a foundational design principle from the start. I have included everyone in the process, including the engineers, PMs, content writers as well as designers and have recently added a11y specific notation methods to the ADHA Figma design systems. I cut my teeth on WCAG 2.0 but have been recommending and auditing with WCAG 2.1 since it was published in 2018. It has been particularly helpful to assess products on mobile devices. I have been studying WCAG 2.2 but uptake has been difficult to press for large organisations but still worth pursuing for at least the new Level A criteria.

Training and capability

At BeamIt and Objective Corporation I led the accessibility audits and shared knowledge with the developers about the primary a11y requirements.

At ADHA , as the UX Lead I managed 3-5 UX designers. This included reviewing and critiquing all UX work across projects and products and leading the direction and framework of the UX practice. I supported all UX work through weekly 1:1s, group knowledge shares, team knowledge shares and workshops. I supported improvements to conformance of internal systems, tooling for developers and communicating value of conformance to product owners. I also assisted other departments to understand the value and purpose of accessible interfaces, like the Education, Architecture and Policy departments.

I worked with the UI designers to help them master not only colour contrast and sizeable text but also describe those features in design systems to aid developers to add accessibility into their QA and UAT testing. I worked with the comms team to bring awareness of guideline concepts and techniques for content writing that is inclusive to people with modest education, reading English as a second language or for people with cognitive disabilities.

Over the past decade, in every contract, job and position I have been the authority on most things to do with creating accessible experiences and communicating it with the team, group, department and organisation.