Accessible Development that Empowers the Developer with Adina Halter

The developer often plays running back. We receive the handoff from the designers, move the product forward with code, line ourselves up to receive requirements and user stories as they come, and quickly dispatch anything that can hinder on-time deployment. We’re fast, we’re reflexive, and we’re efficient. But when it comes to developing with accessibility in mind, a better role for us might be as quarterback. We create and own our approach to code by familiarizing ourselves with the needs of our customers with disabilities. We develop insight and adopt new approaches, then apply that to our architecture. We inform our designers of challenges and suggest solutions that are inclusive to all. In this presentation I will help the developer think strategically when solutioning with accessibility in mind through: 1. developing an understanding of the assistive technologies our customers with disabilities use, 2. learning how to plan the development of complex interfaces, 3. offering a collaborative voice farther up the design pipeline.