Digital Accessibility

As a blind tech user, I am very familiar with the frustration of needing to use a website or application, only to realize that it doesn’t work for you because it simply wasn’t designed to accommodate your disability. Often people only discover that a product is inaccessible after investing time, money, and hope. My goal is to eliminate this feeling of helplessness and invisibility from the disabled experience.

I have been using assistive technology my whole life. In addition to reading braille, I’m proficient with NVDA and JAWS on Windows, Voice-Over on Mac and IOS, and Talkback on Android. In college, I helped my school’s access center evaluate and remediate the accessibility of digital content for students with print disabilities, and I’m experienced performing web accessibility audits using the latest edition of the WCAG.

Accessibility Consultation

Digital accessibility is crucial to the equality of all people. A much-needed revolution in disability access is happening world-wide, and it’s finally forcing the creators of online services to pay attention to their disabled userbase. It’s more important now than ever for businesses, organizations, and developers to prioritize people who use the internet in a non-standard way, with non-standard tools.

In my own state of Colorado alone, there has been an incredible amount of progress in regards to disability rights. This includes HB21-1110, which states that lack of access to state or government services caused by inaccessible technology is considered discrimination against disabled citizens. This is a huge step forward for disability rights. It is difficult for someone to understand the gravity of inaccessible software if they don’t have to confront it each day.

At the same time, government-affiliated entities like public schools, state park districts, and other small organizations will be burdened by this sudden rush to make their applications accessible to such a high standard. I believe that this change is necessary, but I also acknowledge that it will be difficult for many organizations to update their software so quickly. It’s important to remember that most people developing and running inaccessible software are simply unaware of the issues, and would make their applications accessible in a heartbeat if they could.

Regardless, future digital accessibility legislation is inevitable, and soon not just government entities will be responsable for adhering to web accessibility standards. The wise owner of an internet-based business would begin ensuring the accessibility of their applications now.

That’s where I come in! I offer my consulting and web development services to businesses and organizations who want to make their services accessible to the largest number of internet users as possible. My job is to perform a thorough web audit using the latest Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), provide a summary of findings and suggestions for bringing the application up to par, and if desired, implementing accessibility solutions in the code myself or with other developers.

Contact me using the info at the bottom of the page to ask about my accessibility consultation services.