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The importance of accessibility in digital products! 💪 [I promise you will read this twice!]

GrahamTheDev on December 05, 2021

Never forget about accessibility when you are developing digital products. I hope this article will reaffirm some of the things I often have to say...
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GrahamTheDev • Edited

Yes the "WTF" at the end is also deliberate, I am way too proud of myself for this!

You should have seen how long it took me to work "desert" and "down" at the start of a sentence into the flow (well, the best flow I could make within the limitations).

And yes I know it is "gonna" not "going to" but seriously that would have been WAAAYY too obvious!

Have a great week everyone! ❤

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Rachit Khurana • Edited
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Siddharth

That rickroll was neat 🤣

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GrahamTheDev

Trolling is a favourite pastime of mine as you know! 🤣

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yoquiale

I love that you can't get sued for not having accesible websites here in Europe.

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GrahamTheDev

You can it is just that nobody has stepped up and pushed hard yet. In the UK for example there have been 2 cases so far but they were settled out of court which, in my opinion, was not the right action for the disabled community…and I am not a fan of litigation while saying that!

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yoquiale

I meant it literally. Making stuff accessible is a drag (based in my own experience). There aren't enough articles and stuff about how to make some stuff accessible based on your needs, and the already existing examples in the WCAG's guidelines aren't good enough.

I'd rather leave accessibility stuff to an accessibility expert.

 
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GrahamTheDev

Ah, I thought you were kidding as that is such a negative attitude, but I cannot say I blame you!

The WCAG being overwhelming and the lack of proper examples is something I can truly sympathise with.

It does sadden me to see someone think this way about accessibility but it is understandable given the breadth of the topic (if it is any consolation each part of accessibility is very "shallow". You need to know 200 hundred little things not 20 big things).

I am about to embark on a different path with my content creation, I hope I produce some stuff that helps you change that mindset and just learn a little bit about accessibility each day. ❤

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yoquiale

I've read most of your articles and you at least take proper effort to make stuff understandable, which I appreciate. if the wcag documentation was easier to digest I'd look at accessibility in a better way

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GrahamTheDev

Well challenge accepted, my aim is to make you understand and want to engage with accessibility more! Maybe a WCAG in plain English series could be useful!

I am about to do an Ultimate UI series over the next few months where I build UI components that are “perfect” and that will feature semantics, accessibility etc so hopefully that will help! ❤️

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yoquiale

I'm sure your articles have helped a lot of people here :D

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Bhagya Mudgal • Edited

@inhuofficial Thank you for reviewing my site. It was a deep review and I was laughing while reading it. I got to learn many things which I dont know like that aria-page. I will learn more about these accesibility things. I will try to take all measures suggested by you and rebuild my site to v2. I will also replace background of my current image with some good looking colour. This post was really helpfull to me. I hope you will also review my version 2. I am ok with you posting this.

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GrahamTheDev

Super, of course I will review v2, I messaged you through your contact form on the site so you can email me if you need help.

Just bear in mind that sometimes I get busy so it might take me a few days to come back to you!

Glad it made you smile, article will go out later today now I know you are ok with it so hopefully that will get you a few visitors! 🤞❤️

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Bhagya Mudgal

@inhuofficial Please review my personal portfolio. I am waiting for it.

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GrahamTheDev • Edited

Hey Bhagya

Please have a read of the final draft before I release it and make sure you are "happy" with it.

If you can let me know when you have done that I will make final edits and fix typos etc. and then unleash it on the world:

dev.to/inhuofficial/review-your-cr...

I will also email you just to make sure you have chance to review.

If I don't hear from you I will release it probably Wednesday evening or Thursday morning.

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GrahamTheDev

I am doing bud, over half way done - here is a sneak peak! dev.to/inhuofficial/review-your-cr...

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sid

well I read this twice

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GrahamTheDev

Haha good stuff, as you like the Rick rolls did you like this one 😜🤣

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sid

🤣

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Bruno Prieto

Great article]! I'll keep an eye out for the components library

 
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GrahamTheDev

No he seems serious, I was the one who got it wrong!

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yoquiale

I'd rather not do something that is a pain in the ass to do because of the lack of proper code examples. Besides, WCAG's guidelines feels too overwhelming to me.

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GrahamTheDev

Oh I read that as a sarcastic “I love”, we use that a lot like “I love how the bus is always late when I have an appointment” in parts of the UK.