Thread by @wycats

For global accessibility day I'm taking some time to work on getting transitions in the Ember router to announce themselves to assistive technology reliably.

#GAAD

Looking for something quick to do?

Add role=search to your marketing site's search form.

w3.org/TR/wai-aria-pr…

It makes your search box show up as a search landmark. This makes a huge difference to effectively finding it.

#GAAD

Looking for something a little more ambitious? Set up and use a screen reader for the day.

codecademy.com/articles/how-t…

Nothing improves your understanding of how it feels to use a screen reader than using one.

#GAAD

Looking for some good content to read using assistive tech? I loved working through accessibility-developer-guide.com with a keyboard and screen reader.

It's a good way to learn how it feels to use a website that's reasonably optimized for a11y; the content is relevant too.

#GAAD

Other quick hits:

- Audit your page using Chrome's Accessibility Audit (developers.google.com/web/tools/chro…)
- Use an extension to simulate various forms of colorblindness (like chrome.google.com/webstore/detai…)

#GAAD

One last idea: learn about cognitive accessibility.

The cool thing about cognitive accessibility is that making your sites and apps more accessible to people with cognitive or learning disabilities also makes them more usable!

w3.org/WAI/cognitive/

#GAAD

And finally, always remember that making pages and apps more accessible helps a much bigger spectrum of people than those who need the most help.

#GAAD

For every person who absolutely needs a screen reader, there's a bunch of people who have motor impairments that make it difficult to use a mouse or visual impairments that make tiny text or tiny hit targets more difficult.

#GAAD

For every person with significant cognitive disabilities there are many who find confusing websites confusing.

Think of the work of the a11y community as providing truly incredible amounts of free usability research and use it well.

#GAAD