External resources for suppliers

Accessibility is a shared responsibility, and a team game. The following resources provide a helpful introduction to web accessibility for anyone who needs to know more about the topic.

• Introduction to web accessibility, by W3C Web Accessibility Initiative. An excellent starting point for accessibility, including a definition of web accessibility, how people with disabilities use the web, and a high level overview of how to design and test for accessibility.
• Accessibility fundamentals – playlist, by Intopia. A set of four introductory Youtube videos, covering core concepts of accessibility.
• Constructing a perceivable, operable, understandable and robust (POUR) website by WebAIM. An introduction to the process of providing accessible web sites, focusing on the four key principles of accessibility.
• Web accessibility – five common fallacies, by Nomensa. An article correcting some frequent misunderstandings about web accessibility.

Accessibility is best delivered when it is a business priority, with leadership support. As a business leader or product owner, become familiar with the key business benefits of including accessibility in your digital products and services, and the risks of failing to address accessibility appropriately.

• How accessibility benefits your business, by Business Disability Forum, articulating the benefits on innovation, inclusion, brand value and productivity.
• The business case for accessibility, by Tetralogical, a brief summary of the key motivators for investing in solid web accessibility processes.
• Businesses are missing out on the purple pound, says Scope, a blog post published by AbilityNet. The post quantifies the spending power of disabled people, and the role of digital accessibility in helping businesses access that power. 

Legislation that protects disabled people against discrimination applies to the digital world. Ensure that you understand your legal obligations, and how you can manage accessibility risk in digital content that you produce internally and procure from third parties.

• UK law and digital accessibility: what it means for your organization, by Gavin Harris for The Big Hack. A high level overview of the relevant UK legislation that applies to digital accessibility and implications for organizations.
• Digital Accessibility Laws around the globe, by Lainey Feingold. A regularly updated list of accessibility legislation around the world, including links to relevant EU and US laws, provided by a US-based law firm specialising in disability rights.
• Accessibility strategy for procurement, by TPGi. An overview of how procurement processes can support accessibility.
• Accessible Procurement Toolkit, by Centre for Excellence in Universal Design. A collection of resources guiding organisations on including accessibility through the technology procurement process.
• Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT), by Section508.gov. An overview of a template that can be used to report on the accessibility of a digital product. This advice is provided primarily for US federal agencies, but a VPAT has wider application as a recognised way to report a product’s accessibility.

When accessibility is intentionally addressed throughout the project or product management process, the chances of successfully delivering an accessible product are increased. Make sure that accessibility is included in requirements, and the project team has what it needs to deliver accessibility requirements

• Agile Accessibility Handbook - A Practical Guide to Accessible Software Development at Scale, by Dylan Barrell, an ebook outlining how to integrate accessibility into Agile development processes.
• Accessibility strategy for product management, by TPGi, an overview of the key roles a product or project manager can play in ensuring accessibility is addressed throughout the product/project lifecycle.
• Improving accessibility with accessibility acceptance criteria, by Gov.uk. A blog post outlining how accessibility requirements can be incorporated into acceptance criteria for digital products.

Effective involvement of disabled people early and throughout the development lifecycle helps ensure that your accessibility efforts lead to digital products that disabled people can successfully use to complete tasks and achieve goals. Include disabled people in user experience research and product evaluation.

• UX and Accessibility Strategy series, by TPGi. A series of 6 articles introducing how to include people with disabilities throughout the product development process, from research and design to evaluation.
• User research with people with disabilities, by Sheri Byrne Haber. Tips for effectively involving people with disabilities in a range of user research activities.
• Involving users in evaluating web accessibility, by W3C Web Accessibility Initiative. An overview of effective ways of including disabled people in accessibility evaluation
• Inclusive user research: recruiting participants, by Tetralogical. Advice on ways to recruit disabled people as participants in user research activities.

Design decisions that take accessibility into account help increase the chances that designs can be implemented without accessibility barriers. Make sure visual designs observe accessibility standards.

• Designing for web accessibility, by W3C Web Accessibility Initiative. Key tips aimed at helping designers include accessibility considerations in their work.
• Considering the user perspective – a summary of design issues, by WebAIM. A list of challenges encountered by different disability groups, and design techniques for addressing each challenge.
• Web accessibility techniques for designers, by Centre of Excellence for Universal Design. Key techniques to apply when designing page layouts, navigation, information structure, images and multimedia.
• A designer’s guide for documenting accessibility and user interactions, by Stephanie Walter. This article focuses on how designers can annotate designs for accessibility, helping developers who will implement the designs in code.

Coding for accessibility is critical to ensuring that a product can be operated and understood by disabled people. Make sure that you develop digital products that follow accessibility standards.

• Accessibility resources for developers, by W3C Web Accessibility Initiative. Includes links to getting started resources, tutorials on building accessible menus, images, forms, and tables, plus an overview of how the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) can support accessible development.
• Introduction to ARIA - Accessible Rich Internet Applications, by WebAIM, an overview of how developers can use the WAI-ARIA specification to develop accessible web applications.
• MDN web accessibility resources, by Mozilla Developer Network. A collection of developer-focused accessibility tutorials, focused on web and mobile development using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
• A11yproject.com posts, by A11yproject, a community project that offers a growing series of posts on a range of topics on accessible development.
• ARIA authoring practices guide, by W3C. Accessible design patterns and supporting resources for a wide selection of user interface components.

Mobile app accessibility best practices:

• Making great accessible mobile apps, by Gov.uk. General best practices in building accessible apps.
• iOS and IPad OS: Building accessible apps, by Apple. An overview of accessibility features on Apple operating systems, and how to develop apps with accessibility in mind.
• Android: Build more accessible apps, by Google. An introduction to best practices for developing accessible Android apps.

Testing and quality assurance (QA) processes are an opportunity to check that accessibility requirements have been met, and any accessibility issues are reported accurately so that they can be remediated effectively. Embed accessibility tests into your QA testing processes.

• Evaluating web accessibility overview, by W3C Web Accessibility Initiative. A collection of resources describing approaches to testing web sites for accessibility, including advice on using tools and checklists, and guidance on reporting accessibility.
• Testing for accessibility, by Gov.uk. An overview of manual and automated methods for accessibility testing.
• How to bake layers of accessibility testing into your process, by Kate Kalcevich and Mike Gifford. A Smashing Magazine article introducing a strategy for accessibility testing, showing how different types of test can be combined throughout the development process.
• Writing automated tests for accessibility, by Deque. An introduction to developers and testers to ways in which automated accessibility can be integrated into testing processes.
• Accessibility Acceptance Criteria, by MagentaA11y. A tool to help generate accessibility acceptance criteria and test processes for a range of user interface components for web and mobile apps.

Creating and sharing accessible content, whether text, video or audio, is a critical part of an organisation’s accessibility efforts. Make sure that accessibility is part of your content authoring strategy, including marketing, communications and social media.

• Accessibility resources for content writers, by W3C Web Accessibility Initiative. A collection of resources for content writers and media producers, including content structure and use of plain language.
• Web accessibility techniques for content providers, by Centre of Excellence for Universal Design. Provides advice on writing accessible text, Word, PowerPoint and PDF documents.
• Making accessible documents, by Gov.uk. Although aimed at government departments, the accessibility best practices in this guide for accessible document authoring are applicable more widely.
• Making your social media accessible, by RNIB. Key tips for ensuring social media posts and shared content are accessible.

Organisations need knowledge and skills to deliver accessible digital resources. In addition to helping existing staff grow accessibility skills relevant to their roles and responsibilities, you may want to invest in additional staff who can bring accessibility expertise to specific positions in your organisation. Increasing the proportion of disabled staff in your organisation is another way you can demonstrate a commitment to digital inclusion.

• Accessibility Skills Hiring Toolkit, by Teach Access. This toolkit helps with the process of hiring new employees with relevant accessibility skills, including accessibility responsibilities for different roles, expected experience, and sample interview questions.
• Understanding and improving disability recruitment practices, by Inclusive Employers. Advice to organisations on ways to recruit and retain disabled staff.

How we created this list of resources

We partnered with international accessibility consultants TPGi to help craft this curated list of quality, free accessibility resources and training from a range of credible sources to help individuals and organisations new to the topic gain knowledge and skills.

If you have any feedback and suggestions, please contact DigitalAccessibility@barclayscorp.com

Legal disclaimer 

We are not responsible for, nor do we endorse in any way such third party websites or their content. If you decide to access any of the third party websites, you do so entirely at your own risk.