A11y Hour with Eric Bailey

In recent years, accessibility has evolved from a way to avoid legal landmines, to a specialization developers are taking a serious approach to for the sake of their companies, apps, and users. Eric Bailey has been at the forefront of this maturation, working as both an advocate and educator in the accessibility and inclusive design space. 

A user experience designer by trade, Eric developed a passion for accessibility that led him to The A11Y Project – an open source, one-stop shop for digital accessibility education. Eric helps maintain the hub while writing and speaking about the intersectionality of code, usability, and disability. 

In this episode, Eric talks with Chuck and Robbie about the challenges of improving digital inclusivity, how to work through inclusive design on a budget, what bothers Eric about developers who are afraid to take the accessibility leap, where platforms fall short, and the tools that make implementing accessibility easier. 

Key Takeaways

• [00:39] - A brief intro to Eric. 
• [01:35] - A whiskey review - Jefferson's Ocean Bourbon.
• [09:20] - How Eric got involved in accessibility and the A11Y Project.
• [20:53] - How Eric solves for accessibility despite not being disabled. 
• [25:55] - How to solicit expertise from the disabled community even with a limited budget. 
• [28:35] - The best practices for getting started implementing accessibility. 
• [34:46] - A burgers-themed whatnot. 
• [37:08] - Comics, Marvel, and streaming culture. 
• [48:05] - How the gaming industry is going through an accessibility renaissance.
• [56:35] - A few closing thoughts from Eric. 

Quotes

[10:34] - "I used to think [accessibility] shouldn't be a job because everybody should be doing it. But the more I explore this space, the more I understand there is a need for specialization like any other kind of technical consideration." ~ @ericwbailey [https://twitter.com/ericwbailey]

[22:00] - "This is something that I try to be very cognizant of as I identify as abled but I speak with and interact with the disability community: the last thing I want to do is typecast or tokenize or suggest that this is the one true way to do things." ~ @ericwbailey [https://twitter.com/ericwbailey]

[24:16] - "Bringing people in who are daily assistive technology users and having them actually navigate through things is an incredibly compelling, incredibly eye-opening experience." ~ @ericwbailey [https://twitter.com/ericwbailey]

Links

• Eric Bailey [https://twitter.com/ericwbailey]
• The A11Y Project [https://www.a11yproject.com]
• An accessibility checklist [https://www.a11yproject.com/checklist/]
• Accessibility posts  [https://www.a11yproject.com/posts/]
• Accessibility resources [https://www.a11yproject.com/resources/]
• Contribute to The A11Y Project [https://www.a11yproject.com/write-for-us/]
• Git  [https://git-scm.com]
• Jefferson's Ocean Voyage 24 [https://jeffersonsbourbon.com/jeffersons-ocean-voyage-24/]
• Old Fitzgerald Whiskey [https://heavenhilldistillery.com/old-fitzgerald.php]
• Microformats [http://microformats.org]
• National Geographic  [https://www.nationalgeographic.com]
• Remix Run [https://remix.run]
• 11ty [https://www.11ty.dev]
• JavaScript [https://www.javascript.com]
• element transition API [https://developer.chrome.com/blog/shared-element-transitions-for-spas/]
• Velveeta [https://www.kraftheinz-foodservice.com/products/0000070270/velveeta]