Accessibility is all about checklists, HTML and assistive technologies. Its only impact on User Experience is to stop designers from being creative.
Sometimes, you'd be forgiven for thinking that those two statements are true.
Professor Jonathan Hassell has spent much of his last three years disproving them, both at the BBC and in other organisations, and coding how accessibility should be seen in the context of user-centred design into BS 8878.
In this presentation from Camp Digital Manchester 2012 he shows how BS 8878 provides a framework for helping UX professionals embed accessibility considerations into their work, how it can empower and free them from onerous constraints, how it can challenge them to be more creative, and how the results can benefit all users, not just those with disabilities.
28. “BS 8878 is an integral part
of our web accessibility
strategy.
It has given us the
framework to help reduce
costs and improve the
quality when delivering
accessible web products for
our customers.”
Rob Wemyss
Head of Accessibility
Royal Mail Group