My exploration of accessibility began with my job at Germanna Community College’s writing center, where we produced a spectrum of helpful resources online for students to use. We had several professional development opportunities that taught us not only how to make our resources more accessible, but also why it is important.
The internet is for anyone who is curious. It is for individuals who seek knowledge, and also for users to share their own content or findings. Everyone has the capacity to be curious, so ensuring that access is feasible for everyone is valuable when putting out content.
Openness… Why?
“Openness” explores the desire to make things widely available. Putting things out there, even. I would go as far to say that it is an exploration of your own vulnerability. There is much to gain from being more open with your creations. Think… collaboration opportunities and feedback on things you never thought of before. But at the base, it can just be something like sharing something you have learned.
Openness… How?
As I teased above, this just requires the ability to share your findings somewhere. It is a skill, after all, to be able to compile a thought and make it presentable for other people. It is also a mindset to take on. Where can I share this? How can I find this answer? Can I find people to share this with? By answering these prompts, you may build a better idea for how to be more open with your information!
Now: Why Accessibility?
Accessibility ensures that everyone who is curious can find what they are looking for. With every creation, a standard sometimes forms, and making sure that the standard allows for use by everyone is valuable to the core intention of the web. The article, Practical Reasons for Digital Accessibility, outlines some of the many benefits of exercising accessibility online, as well as defining some of the risks and drawbacks of producing inaccessible content.
…How?
Accessibility involves making sure that different tools are utilized to make content understandable by all. Implementing things like image descriptions (for vision impaired viewers), including closed captions (for hearing impaired listeners) , and headers while writing (for screen reader users) are a few different small additions that can be used to make work more accessible.
