Putting together my presentation about Webform Accessibility for Design4Drupal maintenance support plans proved to be more challenging than I anticipated. I proposed this session to force myself to begin to address accessibility in the Webform module for Drupal maintenance support plans 8. I mistakenly thought that I could do some research and become an accessibility expert. I assumed learning about accessibility was the same as learning a new programming language – you read a book, review the docs, write some code, throw out some code, refactor other code, learn about design patterns and – voila! – you now know a new programming language. I was wrong – getting up to speed on accessibility is very challenging.Learning about accessibility can be overwhelmingBetween screen readers barking text at you and massive well-thought-out guidelines, I discovered that understanding accessibility could be overwhelming. I thought I could enable VoiceOver, the screen reader built into OSX, and start using it. Instead, I was only able to digest VoiceOver in small five minute bites, trying to reckon one of the most challenging pieces of software I have ever used. I found myself empathizing with anyone with a disability attempting to navigate a website. Frankly, many people with disabilities are likely forced to give up trying to browse websites that don’t care about accessibility.Why do I care about accessibility?My difficulty loomed large enough that I considered coping out and seeing if I could just do a general Webform presentation at Design4Drupal maintenance support plans. There are three other accessibility related sessions scheduled, and I am willing to assume that these presentations are going to be more thorough…Read More
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