In this session, accessibility advocate Erin Hess addresses key questions including what are the most common accessibility (A11y) categories, where to consider A11y in the SDLC, and what the intersection of software and empathy looks like. She explores human-centered design thinking as a tool and demonstrates how empathy can drive innovation. Watch the on-demand recording at https://applitools.info/0vu

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What we’ll cover in this workshop:
Human-Centered
Design Thinking
Empathy Sessions #A11y Tools &
Resources
What it is and how
we can use it!
What are they?
Who are they for?
The benefits they provide.
Manual and automated
testing resources and
much more!

3. POLL QUESTION #1
Are you familiar with WCAG?
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Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

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Human-Centered Design Thinking

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What is Human-Centered Design Thinking?
Based on three Principles
1. Collaboration
2. Empathy
3. Experimentation

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Collaboration
Great minds create great ideas when
they work together.

8. What are some examples of
collaboration you have experienced
on your teams?
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Empathy
You can’t create a product for people if you
don’t deeply understand their motivations.

10. Can you identify ways your teams
have used empathy to better
understand your product users?
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Experimentation
Great products come from conversations,
experiments, and learning.

12. What are some creative ways your
team has experimented to find a
unique solution to a problem?
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POLL QUESTION #2
What is your role on your team?

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Software Development Life Cycle and intentionally thinking
about our end users

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What happens in the Software Development Lifecycle?
We talk about
the products and
services that we
want to make for
our users.
We make the
products and
services to the best
of our ability.
We test and ship
those products
and services to
our users.

16. QUESTION #3
What ways do your teams practice inclusion or
considering a product when
designing/developing/testing a new feature?
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Empathy Sessions

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What are the outcomes and goals?
Brainstorm who
could potentially
or accidentally
use a product.
Examine our
assumptions
about who we’re
creating products
& services for.
Discover how
users will
interact with
products &
services.

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How do we do this?
Begin by
describing the
users.
Think about
any gaps in the
users
described.
Who’s missing?
Explore how
those users
would interact
with the
product.

20. If you could facilitate/participate in an
Empathy Session, what type of users
would you focus on and why?
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Who participates in Empathy Sessions?
- Anyone who has a view into the user base
- At least one resource from test, dev, and business
- Not too many people (consider a rotation)
- Someone to take notes
- Someone to facilitate
- Consider someone outside your typical group

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Successful Empathy Sessions change
our outlook on our users.

23. Final section!
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#A11y the more you know!

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#A11y the more you know!
Common
Accessibility
categories
Where to
consider testing
for accessibility
and inclusion
during the SDLC
Intersection
of software
development
and empathy

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Common Accessibility Categories
Pain
Flexibility
Mobility
Mental Health
Dexterity
Hearing
Vision
Cognition/Learning
Memory

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#A11y the more you know!
How
empathy
drives
innovation
Hands on
Test
strategies to
check
compliance
#Pa11y - dev
focused a11y
resource

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How does empathy drive innovation?
Empathy supercharges creativity and innovation by giving us insight
into experiencing what someone else is thinking and feeling and
allows us to more fully understand the motivations and anticipate
the needs in ways users may not be able to express themselves.

29. Hands on Test Strategies
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30. Erin Hess
Test Engineer III
Crema
@QueenTester
Resources
Additional Reading
• Empathy Exercises as a Test Engineer
• 7 cool accessibility testing tools
• https://erin-hess.medium.com/
Chrome Extensions
• WAVE Evaluation Tool
• Lighthouse
• Funkify
pa11y repository
• https://github.com/pa11y/pa11y-ci
Applitools Contrast Advisor
• https://applitools.com/contrast-advisor/

31. Get in Touch
Request a Demo
Erin Hess
Test Engineer III
Crema
@QueenTester

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