I joined Mastodon proper in April of this year. I found a lot of folks from the IndieWeb community there, and I have been learning a lot from them. I started following a few people who were posting about accessibility and I am actively trying to learn more about it and focus my efforts on making my website more accessible.
Lots of prominent websites these days will have a page dedicated to highlighting their commitment to accessibility, declaring their compliance with the W3C (WWW Consortium)'s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (aka WCAG2.1) and providing contact details for people to report issues.
I'm talkin' big important organisations like the ABC, BBC and Dominos. 🍕
But you don't have to be a big important pizza chain to have an accessibility statement. Just as you might have a Privacy policy, Terms of use, or an Acknowledgement of Country in your footer - Linking to an accessibility statement on your website is a great way to show your commitment to accessibility, and to let people know that you are open and willing to have transparent discussions around access issues.
There is no "100% accessibility." #accessibility is not some fixed point on a binary scale. It looks different for everyone. It changes over time.
- Toot by @[email protected]
Accessibility is a journey
I have been working on my website for a few years now. I remember being very excited to discover aXe and wrote about using it to fix little issues. But for every code change, with every refactor, with every web page iteration - comes the possibility of introducing new issues.
I don't remember who I was reading when I made this mental shift to make content and features secondary priorities, but I am glad I did.
Mixed signals
It also forces you to think about what your priorities are. I gathered a list of issues, I prioritised them, and I started working on them. At the same time I thought of 100 cool features I'd like to add to my website, but I made it my mission not to work on those until I have fixed the list of accessibility issues I have already identified.
So you might be thinking this is virtue signalling and doesn't accomplish anything. I disagree, because I have the closed Github issue tickets to prove how much I have accomplished.
Make a statement
You can learn how to make an accessibility statement for your website here: https://www.w3.org/WAI/planning/statements/
I stole some ideas from Eric Bailey and Ben Myers:
You can read my accessibility statement for more information on how I am trying to make this website more accessible, and how to get in touch if you encounter issues.
And if you have any suggestions for how I can improve my website's accessibility, please let me know!
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