This site should be available to anyone on any device from anywhere they’re able to access the internet—regardless of the speed of their connection.11Ethan Marcotte also has an accessibility page that’s worth looking at. It would be great to see more of these around the web. I’ve taken steps to ensure this site is accessibile as it can be both from a visual design and a technology and performance standpoint and aim for AA WCAG 2.1.
If there’s anywhere I’ve made a mistake or can otherwise improve the accessibility of the site, you can send an email to accessibility@garrettdimon.com, and I’ll make it a priority to research and understand how to improve and then implement the improvements. I’ll usually even write an article here about what I learned and what I changed to improve the accessibility. And I’ll always give you credit for bringing it to my attention.
The web is inherently accessible by default, and it’s our responsibility as software developers to keep it that way or improve upon it.22If you build a website with only semantic HTML and do not use CSS or JavaScript, that HTML will be readable and usable by anybody with any device connected to the internet. There are still considerations like labels and alternate text that are not automatic, but those do not require any particularly advanced knowledge about software development. If we choose to use tactics and techiques that break the inherent accessibility of a web site, then we should make an effort to understand and address any accessibility issues created by those choices.
If you’re not already familiar with accessibility, the WAI’s Accessibility Fundamentals site is a good place to start. They also offer a handy WCAG quick reference that provides a good overview of how to ensure a site is accessible.
They also provide a good video overview of web accessibility that helps explain the breadth of accessibility options and the ways in which accessibility benefits everyone that uses your site.
A Word on Accessibiilty Overlays
While accessibility overlays may be attractive as a way to throw money at a “problem”, they’ve generally been found to hinder accessibility more than they help, and you should likely avoid using them. If you’d like more specific information, Adrian Roselli has extensively documented the problematic nature of accessibility overlays, law suits related to them, and the bad behavior of the companies selling them.