Web Accessibility Matters: Why Should We Care

Web accessibility expert David Berman demonstrates five reasons why we should care about accessibility on the web, in this first segment of his 5-part video playlist, Accessibility Matters.
To view the next segment: • Web Accessibility Matt...
An alternative version of this video with extended audio description for people who are vision-impaired or learning English is available at • Web Accessibility Matt...
Berman starts by looking at the enormous number of people who would be left behind if the web was not made accessible. Not only is it the right thing to do as a caring society, but it's the smart thing to do for business reasons -- to reach more customers, to suit more devices, to recruit and retain good people, to get better ethical search engine optimization (SEO) and analytics, and to meet shifting legal expectations where regulations or legal precedents demand that you must.
Fortunately, we live in an unprecedented time where very clear rules have been established to make websites and documents accessible to everyone. Central to this are the WCAG 2.0 guidelines, from which legislation around the world is based. We can choose to exceed those rules depending on what organization we're in or we can choose to apply some and not others.
Disabilities cover all of the human senses and can affect an individual temporarily, occasionally or permanently. As the population ages, people will acquire new impairments that will affect their dexterity, hearing, vision, cognitive functions and ability to communicate verbally or otherwise. Time and time again we'll find that when we design for the extremes we can create a product that improves things for everyone.
This video is a based on the keynote from a training presentation regularly provided in person : Steps for including our entire audience by David Berman. For more information and resources, visit www.davidberma...