Fast track #

The easiest way to comply with accessibility standards is to create pages that follow the classic document schema, which is, by default, accessible.

The gossip #

This idea is not entirely mine, but it makes so much sense. A workshop was open to creating a guideline on fixing accessibility problems, and I was preparing for it. The web is full of resources on this matter, so the idea of creating yet another one started to feel a bit vane. Not sure why they are putting money into this...to raise awareness that there is a problem? And then a friend tells me this simple concept, a standard document is already accessible. By default. You don't need to invest in fixing anything if you don't create the problem. So it's us, when we add things out of the ordinary, that make the obstacle for the page reader or complicate things for the users to understand where to find the information.

The classic book format, or even more, the traditional journalist pyramid, offers a bulletproof way to communicate the most variated topics. Originality sometimes comes with a price, and if that is becoming unavailable for a specific part of the users, that will also feel left out; it should be avoided. Back to basics should be the first point of any accessibility guide.

And if you think of people with accessibility problems as this small part of the population for which you could not care less, think again, the accessibility tools are used by far more people than the "official" ones, the intellects out there might not have to be damaged to not get your navigation. And to be compliant, it's as easy as sticking to the paragraph, headline, images, and video we all know. Or you can always hire an accessibility professional :)