Greater Than Code

Greater Than Code


251: Diplomatic Accessibility Advocacy with Todd Libby

September 22, 2021

01:09 - Todd’s Superpower: Advocacy For Accessibility

Getting Started

Designing With Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman
The A11Y Project
W3C

06:18 - Joining The W3C

The W3C Community Page

07:44 - Getting People/Companies/Stakeholders to Care/Prioritize About Accessibility

Making A Strong Case For Accessibility by Todd Libby
Diplomatic Advocacy
You Don’t Want To Get Sued! / $$$
“We are all temporarily abled.”

15:20 - The Domino's Pizza Story

Supreme Court hands victory to blind man who sued Domino’s over site accessibility

18:21 - Things That Typically Aren’t Accessible And Should Be

The WebAIM Million Report
WCAG

Color Contrast
Missing Alt Text on Images
Form Input Labels

What’s New in WCAG 2.1: Label in Name by Todd Libby

Empty Links
Not Using Document Language
Triggering GIFS / Flashing Content
Empty Buttons – Use a Button Element!!
Tab Order
Semantic HTML, Heading Structure

26:27 - Accessibility for Mobile Devices

Target Size

Looking at WCAG 2.5.5 for Better Target Sizes

Dragging Movements

28:08 - Color Contrast

Contrast Ratio

33:02 - Designing w/ Accessibility in Mind From the Very Beginning

Accessibility Advocates on Every Team
Accessibility Training

36:22 - Contrast (Cont’d)

38:11 - Automating Accessibility!

axe-core-gems

Reflections:

Mae: Eyeballing for contrast.

John: We are all only temporarily abled and getting the ball rolling on building accessibility in from the beginning of projects going forward and fixing older codebases.

Mandy: Using alt-tags going forward on all social media posts.

Todd: Accessibility work will never end. Accessibility is a right not a privilege.

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Transcript:

JOHN: Welcome to Greater Than Code, Episode 251. I’m John Sawers and I’m here with Mae Beale.

MAE: Hi, there! And also, Mandy Moore.

MANDY: Hi, everyone! I'm Mandy Moore and I'm here today with our guest, Todd Libby.

Todd Libby is a professional web developer, designer, and accessibility advocate for 22 years under many different technologies starting with HTML/CSS, Perl, and PHP. Todd has been an avid learner of web technologies for over 40 years starting with many flavors of BASIC all the way to React/Vue. Currently an Accessibility Analyst at Knowbility, Todd is also a member of the W3C. When not coding, you’ll usually find Todd tweeting about lobster rolls and accessibility.

So before I ask you what your superpower is, I'm going to make a bet and my bet is that I'm 80% positive that your superpower has something to do with lobster rolls. Am I right?

[laughter]

Am I right?

TODD: Well, 80% of the time, you'd be right. I just recently moved to Phoenix, Arizona. So I was actually going to say advocacy for accessibility, but yes, lobster rolls and the consumption of lobster rolls are a big part.

MAE: I love it. That's fantastic.

MANDY: Okay. Well, tell me about the advocacy. [chuckles]

TODD: So it started with seeing family members who are disabled, friends who are disabled, or have family members themselves who are disabled, and the struggles they have with trying to access websites, or web apps on the web and the frustration, the look of like they're about ready to give up. That's when I knew that I would try to not only make my stuff that I made accessible, but to advocate for people in accessibility.

MAE: Thank you so much for your work. It is critical. I have personally worked with a number of different populations and started at a camp for children with critical illnesses and currently work at an organization that offers financial services for people with di