The Missing Link: Accessibility and Usability Working Together

Accessibility is not about meeting standards. However, accessibility is often approached as a standards checklist. Accessibility is fundamentally about people -- designing products so that people with disabilities can use them effectively. When you shift the focus of accessibility to people, you reap all sorts of benefits, such as more efficient development and evaluation. Traditional usability practices work well for accessibility. And, general usability benefits from addressing accessibility. In this keynote and Q&A sessions, you'll learn: how to get your boss and colleagues on board, how to maximize the benefits of accessibility and usability working together, and about resources to support your efforts

Shawn Henry leads worldwide education and outreach promoting web accessibility for people with disabilities at the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), holds a research appointment at MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and holds an MSc in Digital Inclusion. Prior to joining WAI, she consulted with organizations to optimize user interface design for usability and accessibility. Shawn focuses her personal passion for accessibility on bringing together the needs of individuals and the goals of organizations in designing human-computer interfaces. Her book Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design offers an approach for developing products that are more usable for everyone.