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Our industry is shockingly bad at accessibility: by some estimates, over 70% of websites are effectively unavailable to blind users! Making your app accessible isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s the law. In this talk, we’ll share what it’s taken to scale GitHub’s accessibility program and equip you to do the same at your company.
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In the talk titled "How to make your application accessible (and keep it that way!)" presented by Joel Hawksley at Rocky Mountain Ruby 2024, he highlights the urgent need for accessibility in technology, noting that over 70% of websites are largely inaccessible to individuals with disabilities. This session aims to share the lessons learned from scaling GitHub's accessibility program and provide actionable strategies for other organizations. ### Key Points Discussed: - **Community Values**: Hawksley emphasizes the Ruby community's spirit of inclusivity and caring, contrasting it with the reality of inaccessible technology products. - **Tools and Measurement**: In his previous talk, he discussed using automated accessibility scanners like AX to identify issues, while this talk focuses on scaling accessibility efforts across large organizations. - **Engaging Leadership**: He outlines the importance of convincing leadership to prioritize accessibility, backed by the legal risks associated with non-compliance. - **Accessibility Goals**: Hawksley stresses that accessibility must be integrated as an organizational goal and not just a one-time fix. - **Ownership and Responsibility**: Establishing clear ownership of accessibility responsibilities within teams is vital to ensure ongoing compliance. - **Lived Experience**: Involvement of individuals with disabilities in testing products is crucial to creating an accessible application. - **Training and Resources**: He suggests companies provide extensive training to employees on using accessibility tools and designing inclusive experiences. - **Investment Requirement**: Talks about the need for significant investment, stating GitHub spends between $5 to $10 million annually on accessibility initiatives. ### Significant Examples: - **Legal Risks**: Hawksley references a rising trend in digital accessibility lawsuits, emphasizing the need for compliance not just ethically, but also to mitigate legal liability. - **Process Implementation**: He discusses the implementation of a service catalog to assign accountability for accessibility, detailing how it has improved compliance and responsiveness to issues. ### Conclusions and Takeaways: - **Measure Accessibility**: Companies need to prioritize measuring their accessibility progress using reliable metrics. - **Empower Your Team**: Organizations should empower individuals with lived experiences to drive accessibility efforts. - **Cultural Shift**: Emphasizing that accessibility should not merely be a compliance issue but a cultural value within tech organizations, ensuring that all individuals, including those with disabilities, can effectively use their products.
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