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Welcome to Accessibility (A11y) and Me! Heads up, a11y is a numeronym for accessibility.

You’ve heard about this web accessibility thing and know a thing or two. You manage, design or build websites and someone has asked you, “Is your site accessibile?” You’re not sure. You hope so! You scour the web to learn more, but discover it’s a wild world of contradicting and incomplete information out there when it comes to accessibility.

Where do you start? Right here.

Here you’ll find several useful online resources related to web accessibility and a brief description on how it will help you. The list will always be concise, current and geared toward starting with accessibility or topics within it.

The best

  • WebAIM: WebAIM has provided comprehensive web accessibility solutions since 1999, and is one of the leading providers of web accessibility expertise internationally. WebAIM is a non-profit organization within the Center for Persons with Disabilities at Utah State University. The site brings together a huge collection of information about web accessibility. Most of it is up to date and evergreen enough to help you. The organization’s blog tackles many modern-day, evolving topics related to web accessibility.
  • The A11Y Project: This open source intiative aims to make web accessibility easier. It includes tips, tutorials and information on how to test for better accessibility. Much of the content authored remains well written, on the shorter side and digestable.
  • Inclusive Components: Heydon Pickering created this blog trying to be a pattern library. Focusing on inclusive design, each post explores a common interface component and comes up with a better, more robust and accessible version of it. It also has a book version, available for purchase from the site.
  • Accessibility Wins: Curated by Marcy Sutton, this site provides first-class examples of how to implement accessibility the right way. It’s a shining force of positivity in the accessibility community.
  • Mismatch – How Inclusion Shapes Design: Kat Holmes writes about how inclusive methods can build elegant design solutions that work for all.
  • Accessibility for Everyone: Laura Kalbag guides you through the accessibility landscape in an approachanble and pragmatic way. It will make you want to turn around and tackle accessibility the next day.
  • Accessibility Weekly: Curated by me, David A. Kennedy, this newsletter aims to give you a weekly dose of web accessibility to help you bring it into your everyday work.

Favorites

Tools

Similar efforts

Others have created similar, outstanding efforts to get you started in accessibility. Some of my favorites include:

  • A11y Coffee: Pick your serving size of web accessibility information.
  • Solid Start: There are four ways you can improve your creation for everybody. All four are testable, fixable and they improve usability for everybody.