Making Content Creation Tools Accessible Julie Grundy Senior Digital Accessibility Consultant at Intopia Summit 2022

An inclusive web needs to be built with inclusive tools

ATAG can help diversify your userbase With guidelines and feature suggestions

What’s ATAG?

ATAG is… the Authoring Tools Accessibility Guidelines (https://www.w3.org/TR/ATAG20/)

So what’s an authoring tool? • Any website, app or other software • Which is used to make content for the web

So what’s an authoring tool? • Any website, app or other software • Which is used to make content for the web Julie’s opinion: ATAG should also apply to any digital product with more UI than content

ATAG is similar to WCAG… • Helps people with digital accessibility • Has principles, guidelines, success criteria • Hard to read

…but also different • It’s not required by law • It doesn’t apply to all digital products

ATAG has two parts To make authoring tools: 1. easier to use by people with disabilities 2. more likely to create accessible content

WCAG handles access to content ATAG handles access to creation

Introduction to ATAG Me on Intopia’s YouTube channel https://youtu.be/I1T849ZFJ5g

Plain-language ATAG guide ATAG: the standard for accessibility of content creation by Hidde de Vries (https://hidde.blog/content-creation-accessibility/)

What can we learn from ATAG?

Feature-level advice Contributed by people with disabilities

User research is gold but meanwhile, ATAG can fill in some gaps

Useful accessibility features • Extended keyboard controls • Error prevention and recovery • Documentation

Extended keyboard control

Toolbar pattern ARIA Authoring Practices Guide: Patterns https://www.w3.org/WAI/ARIA/apg/ example-index/toolbar/toolbar.html

Action Menu pattern ARIA Authoring Practices Guide: Patterns https://www.w3.org/WAI/ARIA/apg/ example-index/menu-button/menubutton-actions.html

Extended keyboard support Helps screen reader users and people with impaired dexterity navigate large amounts of UI efficiently

Error prevention and recovery

Hands-free coding Josh Comeau describes how he uses speech recognition and an eye-tracker https://www.joshwcomeau.com/blog /hands-free-coding/

Error prevention and recovery Helps people with impaired dexterity and with attention or memory deficits

Documentation

Documentation Two types: 1. How to find and use accessibility features 2. How to create accessible content

Documentation Helps people with disability find and use your accessibility features, and helps all of us make more accessible online content

Making accessible content We need accessible tools if we want people to make accessible content. ATAG can help you make your products accessible to everyone.

Making Content Creation Tools Accessible Julie Grundy • @stringy • @Intopia Let’s talk!