Matt May on Web Accessibility: Do It Right - Keep It Simple
Matt May, Accessibility Engineer at Adobe in Seattle, gave a great talk last night on Web Accessibility. The talk was sponsored by Refresh Seattle.
Matt is someone we all can — and should — turn to with questions about Web Accessibility. It’s clear why Adobe and W3C/WAI chose Matt to articulate and evangelize accessibility standards:
- Matt really knows his stuff (an understatement).
- He makes the material accessible.
- Matt is accessible.
A quick glance at the Federal Government’s Section 508 website shows why this is so important: it’s dense as hell, therefore most of us will never read it. Although it’s absolutely clear that Matt could tell you in great detail about many aspects of accessibility, like most Kung Fu masters, he restrains himself.* Here’s how he typically states the importance of accessibility in software and Web development:
A mealymouthed stance? No way.
To turn standards into reality, we (and by “we” I mean Matt) must reduce the “oh my god, how will we do it?!” factor as much as possible. Sure, companies that do work for government agencies will try to comply with Section 508 as much as the law requires, which might mean hiring an “expert”. But what about all the other software and web pages out there?
It makes a lot of sense to put the emphasis where it will do the most good: by making reasonably-sized sites reasonably accessible — because that’s a whole lot better than nuttin’, honey. And, by keeping it simple for these sites’ developers and other stakeholders, we stand a much better chance of helping them inspire others to follow suit.
Something else Matt said helped reinforce his position. When asked to recommend a book on accessibility standards, he said he could not — because those on the market devote too much attention to compliance (with Section 508, for example) versus simple ways to achieve more accessibility, more quickly. (He may have hinted that he was hoping to correct the situation himself, I’m not sure. But maybe a book, by its nature, would do less for the cause than newer media in smaller doses, like video or podcasts, along with the Web and PDF.)
Matt will be posting links related to his talk, and I will include those as soon as he does. Meantime, here are some other resources:
- Matt May’s blog (views are his own - check it out!)
- Web Accessibility Initiative - Quick Tips to Make Accessible Web Sites
- Accessibility at Adobe (some good stuff here)
- Matt’s profile at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
- World Wide Web Consortium Web Accessibility Initiative (W3C/WAI)
*To my knowledge, Matt is not really a Kung Fu master — just in case you were going to refrain from making any negative comments below. Fire away!
Mark McLaren
McBuzz Communications
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