Guidelines and Principles

Designers and developers should become familiar with the following guidelines and principles when building or customizing digital experiences:

Automated Testing Tools

Designers and developers should review the available list of Automated Testing Tools and determine which ones they will use during design and development. These tools will only catch up to 30% of accessibility issues, but catching those 30% initially can be instrumental in paving the way for manual testing.

Manual Testing Processes

The best way to understand how disabled people interact with the digital world is by learning those interactions. It's recommended that developers learn the following types of manual testing so that they can validate code as they are developing it:

Why Accessibility Matters

Before diving into guidelines and testing, it's important to understand why accessibility matters. In this video, Juan Alcazar, a legally blind filmmaker, explains what accessibility means to him on a personal level.

Note: In this video, Juan describes his experience as a blind person using assistive technology. How the disabled community navigates the web varies by disability. Please review the Understanding Disabilities section of this site for more information on how disabled people navigate the web. 

Interactive transcript available on YouTube.

Additional Industry Resources

Developers and designers are encouraged to leverage the following accessibility industry resources: