Walking the Floor at WCEU Talking Accessibility with Taeke Reijenga

Taeke:
Hey guys and girls, and anything in between. This is Taeke, your host from the accessibility podcast. It’s just me today. I saw Anne-Mieke running around, which is understandable as she is one of the organizers of WordCamp Europe that we’re currently attending. We’re going to freestyle a bit, so I’ll just walk around and ask some people about accessibility: what it means for them, if it’s something that is part of their daily practice, if it’s new to them, anything. So let’s get started. Hey there, this is, let’s see, Manuela van Prooijen. How are you doing? Hi.

Manuela:
I am fine, thank you. This is quite a spread.

Taeke:
It’s been a couple of years.

Manuela:
Yes. The last time we met was at Porto WordCamp Europe.

Taeke:
And that’s when you decided to move to Portugal.

Manuela:
That’s right. That’s my home base now.

Taeke:
Really cool. This is the Do the Woo accessibility podcast. So I wanted to ask you a couple of questions about accessibility. Is there anything that you do in your daily life that involves accessibility?

Manuela:
Yeah. Over the past few years, I’ve developed training programs specifically for virtual assistants to bridge the gap between backend developers and marketing teams to provide a hands-on workforce for bridging accessibility gaps. So I have this program, and it’s very successful in the Netherlands.

Taeke:
So you’re basically training the new generation to help us out?

Manuela:
Yes. With the upcoming European Accessibility Act, it’s very important not just to have auditors or programmers, but people who can provide hands-on workforce.

Taeke:
Yeah, that’s amazing. And I totally agree. I mean, I foresee a bit of an issue with this act coming up. At the moment that we are recording, this is one year and 14 days away.

Manuela:
Yes, it’s almost one year away, but it’s getting closer.

Taeke:
It’s getting closer. The clock is ticking. Next booth, I see a booth for Equalize Digital, and I know they do something with accessibility. Hi there. Who are you? What do you do at Equalize Digital?

Steve:
Hello, I am Steve Jones. I am the CTO at Equalize Digital. We are an accessibility product and services company specializing in accessibility. We have a plugin called the Accessibility Checker that scans your websites for accessibility issues.

Taeke:
And I heard something, and I see it on your booth. You landed an amazing client not too long ago, or maybe some time ago, but they launched not too long ago.

Steve:
They have a lot of things, but the client you’re speaking of is NASA. Last year, we were brought in as the accessibility team for the NASA project. NASA built a new website on top of WordPress, and we were lucky enough to be brought in to audit the code being developed by the Lone Rock Agency for the NASA website. It was an exciting time, and it actually has extended to just recently. We’ve still been doing some audits on that and providing accessibility feedback.

Taeke:
That’s amazing. Congrats on that. That’s a cool name to have in your portfolio, right?

Steve:
Absolutely.

Taeke:
So is it just these big names that you work for? I imagine that the plugin is for anyone to install. Can you tell a little bit more about the plugin, what it does, and why I should install it on my website?

Steve:
Yeah, we don’t just do huge, awesome, interesting clients like NASA, although that is great. The bulk of our clients are medium to large agencies. We do a lot of enterprise website development that is accessible, and like you said, we have our Accessibility Checker plugin. This plugin has a full-featured free version available on WordPress.org. It sits inside your WordPress admin and evaluates your post or page for accessibility issues in real-time.

Taeke:
So this really helps editorial teams in writing their content because they get immediate feedback, right?

Steve:
Yes, it’s never enough to launch a website and say it’s accessible and then leave it. Especially WordPress websites. They’re a living, breathing machine. So accessibility is something that needs to be evaluated with every publish.

Taeke:
It’s not just about developers being trained.

Steve:
Content creators,

Taeke:
Content creators, designers. It’s a team effort. Is there anything you want to add or share with us? Otherwise, I’m going to move along and see if there are more sponsors here that do anything with accessibility.

Steve:
For any freelancers or agencies or large agencies out there, consider accessibility a priority. Put accessibility first.

Taeke:
I do have one last question. Why is it so important for you? Is it the law or is there a more ethical motivation? What brought you to accessibility as a niche?

Steve:
Well, there is a legal aspect and an ethical aspect to it. Of course, a lot of companies do need to legally comply. The European Accessibility Act will be enacted next year. So there’s a lot in that respect. But there’s the ethical side too. At Equalize Digital, we lean more on the ethical side. It’s the right thing to do. Anybody should be able to use the internet. Societies across the world are becoming increasingly digital for basic tasks like getting medical supplies and filling out government paperwork. They shouldn’t be met with blockers along the way. They should be able to access and submit information as easily as people without any disabilities.

Taeke:
Yeah, totally agree. And it’s exactly the same philosophy that we live by. It’s more the ethical argument that weighs stronger than any law. It’s about democratizing publishing, making sure that the web is open and can be used by anyone in any situation, whether it’s a temporary or a more permanent one. In the end, we’ll all grow older.

Steve:
Yeah, I mean, we’re building an internet for our future selves. We will get older, and we will have degenerative issues, eyesight issues typically. It’s funny that you bring up democratizing publishing because our CEO, Amber Hines, likes to say that we’re trying to democratize accessibility.

Taeke:
Thanks very much.

Steve:
Alright, thank you.

Taeke:
And while I’m approaching the Do the Woo booth at WordCamp Europe, I see another amazing person that I want to ask some questions. We’re going to see an amazing talk by Fel about the European Accessibility Acts that we extensively discussed already. And I just ran into Bet.

Bet:
Hey.

Taeke:
Hey, Bet, how are you?

Bet:
I’m good. How are you?

Taeke:
I’m good. How are you enjoying WordCamp Europe?

Bet:
I am enjoying it a lot.

Taeke:
Yeah. What brought you here?

Bet:
I get to talk to all kinds of people about accessibility.

Taeke:
Awesome. Just accessibility?

Bet:
Well, selling myself, yeah.

Taeke:
What we’re doing. Well, sell yourself to the audience. Who are you? What do you do?

Bet:
I’m Ben Hannon. I’m the CEO of AccessiCart. We do web accessibility for e-commerce and other folks too, but primarily e-commerce. We work on WordPress, Shopify, and Magento.

Taeke:
And what does that mean, “we work on”?

Bet:
We do accessibility consulting and testing for those platforms, and then we can do remediations in WordPress, but not on the others. We tend to partner with agencies, working alongside them to identify issues, prioritize them, help them solve them, and retest and document everything.

Taeke:
You guide them through the process with the aim of going from one project to the other or training them on the job and letting them go at some point?

Bet:
Yes, we build up the skills of the developers there. We do some project work, project management for remediation, or consulting for a development project. But our bread and butter is doing accessibility maintenance plans. Accessibility can be affected by any kind of content change. Sometimes even a plugin update can make something inaccessible. So we work with them to monitor and work on the sites continuously. For many, it’s about identifying and solving a few problems every month, step by step.

Taeke:
And that gets them documentation that shows they’re making incremental progress. It’s about showing they’re taking it seriously, right?

Bet:
Exactly. And having those documented reports makes it more affordable for many people to begin thinking about doing it in smaller chunks.

Taeke:
You’re from the US, right?

Bet:
Yes, I’m from Oregon.

Taeke:
So you deal with the Americans with Disabilities Act mainly?

Bet:
Yes, but we also have clients who need to comply with EU laws.

Taeke:
If you look at the European Accessibility Act and compare it to what’s already happening in the US under the ADA, do you see a difference?

Bet:
Yes, the EU law will have a much bigger impact. The ADA was enacted 40 years ago, before websites, so it wasn’t written for websites. Lawsuits are brought under the ADA, and courts usually say you have to remediate to WCAG 2.1 AA. But the EAA talks about those standards plus regular testing and reporting, which isn’t required in the US unless they have EU customers.

Taeke:

So the European Accessibility Act is really an act about accessibility, and it’s up to the European countries to implement it into law. It’s inclusive.

Bet:
Yes, and in some countries, like Germany, competitors can file a complaint, which really motivates people to get that competitive advantage.

Taeke:
I hope there’s enforcement and it’s taken seriously. From Europe, we look at the US and see it as the Wild West with the ADA.

Bet:
Yes, the European Accessibility Act is friendlier but has a bigger impact. It’s about being inclusive.

Taeke:
With only one year to go, I’m a bit worried that we’re not ready for this.

Bet:
But there’s more awareness now. Agencies and clients are starting to realize they need to step up.

Taeke:
It’s a mindset. If we don’t feel it, if we don’t have the empathy to understand what it’s like not to be able to use the web, then…

Bet:
Exactly. If you’re lucky enough not to die suddenly, you’ll probably need accessibility.

Taeke:
Yes. Someone mentioned we’re building the accessible web for ourselves. We’ll all grow older and benefit from this. Thanks for the catch-up, Bet. Let’s see if we can get you on the show soon.

Bet:
That would be great. Thanks a lot.

Ash:
My name is Ash Shaw. I’m from Lightspeed WordPress Agency. We did some testing using BrowserStack accessibility tools and PageSpeed Lighthouse. We’ve been fixing issues within our free open-source theme listed on WordPress.org.

Taeke:
What’s it called?

Ash:
NSX Design. None of our software in the past was accessible. After we purchased courses from the A11Y Collective, we skilled up in accessibility. My designer, developers, and I all skilled up.

Taeke:
That’s amazing.

Ash:
It made a huge difference to our understanding of accessibility and compatibility. We have clients worldwide, but mainly in South Africa. Now that we have a base that is accessible, we can build accessible sites.

Taeke:
You’ve just taken the first steps towards full accessibility in your client work?

Ash:
Yes. We’re using tools like Stark as a browser extension and in Figma. We’re dealing with contrast issues, button sizes, font sizes, etc. Yesterday, I worked with the accessibility table at Contributor Day and got input on our theme issues. Some issues are in Core or WooCommerce or Gravity Forms.

Taeke:
I know there are issues in WordPress and WooCommerce, but I also know people are taking it seriously. After WordCamp Europe, WooCommerce will work on their plugin and address 50-60 accessibility issues.

Ash:
Yes, Amber Hinds is leading that. I reported the issues I found, and she’s logging them as GitHub issues.

Taeke:
Thank you for that contribution.

Ash:
It was a fun day. I learned a lot. My developers struggled at first but eventually got it.

Taeke:
It takes time to go from awareness to practice. That’s why it’s important to start working on accessibility now, especially with the European Accessibility Act in mind. It’s only a year away.

Ash:
Now that we have this knowledge, every project we do will use these tools. We get free access to the BrowserStack accessibility tool, and I’ve recommended it to other users.

Taeke:
A lot more people will thank you for that suggestion because this is the Do the Woo podcast on accessibility. This will be broadcasted after WordCamp Europe. Thank you for all the tips and your experiences. I’m going to see if I can tackle a few more people and hear their stories about accessibility. Thanks a lot.

Ash:
Thanks, man. See you.

Taeke:
Hello Ingrid. Can you tell us a little bit about what you’re doing here, what you’re promoting here at the Accessibility Collective booth?

Ingrid:
We are an e-learning platform with courses for designers, developers, and content writers, mostly marketers, to ensure the web is fully accessible.

Taeke:
Is there a lot of interest in the booth today?

Ingrid:
Yes, definitely. From frontend developers, backend developers, and plugin creators. It’s a diverse audience, which is fun to talk to about accessibility.

Taeke:
Who is the Accessibility Collective aimed at? Is it for a specific discipline?

Ingrid:
It’s important for all disciplines creating or writing content for the web to ensure full accessibility. It’s a team effort.

Taeke:
I see a potential candidate for a small interview. Hi Josepha. Can I ask you a couple of questions? This is the Accessibility Podcast from Do the Woo.

Josepha:
By some fluke of nature, we also have the current project ambassador from the TYPO3 Project.

Taeke:
Wow, that’s amazing.

Josepha:
You can ask us both a question.

Taeke:
Can you tell me what accessibility, specifically web accessibility, means to you personally or professionally?

Josepha:
I think the most important thing about accessibility that people often overlook is that it is a subset of usability. We are all just temporarily fully abled. Just because you feel accessibility doesn’t apply to you now, doesn’t mean it won’t later. It’s something we should all care about because we are a global project trying to make the world a better place, making commerce and access to cool stuff better and easier for more people.

Taeke:
That’s a great opinion. Thank you for that.

Mathias:
My name is Mathias Bolt Lesniak. I am the project ambassador of TYPO3, a friendly cousin CMS to WordPress. We work together in the Open Website Alliance. My elevator pitch about accessibility is this: I once stood in front of an elevator in a hotel and pressed the button. The elevator came with a person inside who asked, “Where am I?” The elevator had braille everywhere, but the key card scanner wasn’t marked in braille. It’s an excellent example of how important accessibility is. You can’t just do it as an afterthought. You have to think through it the whole way. If you skip a step, you lose the visitor.

Taeke:
You ruin the experience, you lose the visitor. It’s a great example, especially in digital accessibility for e-commerce. The whole store can be accessible, but maybe the marketing team forgot something, and the user experience is ruined. Thanks very much.

Mathias:
Thank you.