{
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    "title" : "An Introduction to Accessibility |Digital.gov",
    "description": "An Introduction to Accessibility",
    "home_page_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/","feed_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2019/12/11/an-introduction-accessibility/index.json","item" : [
    {"kicker" : "This Week's IDEA","title" :"An Introduction to Accessibility","summary" : "This week, we're taking at look at how to reframe our approach to encouraging others to build with accessibility.","date" : "2019-12-11T09:11:00-05:00","date_modified" : "2025-01-27T19:42:55-05:00","authors" : {"jeremyzilar" : "Jeremy Zilar","toni-bonitto" : "Toni Bonitto"},"topics" : {
        
            "accessibility" : "Accessibility",
            "digital-service-delivery" : "Digital service delivery"
            },"featured_image" : { "uid" :
  "this-weeks-idea-card", "alt" :
  "" },"branch" : "bc-archive-content-3",
      "filename" :"2019-12-11-an-introduction-accessibility.md",
      
      "filepath" :"news/2019/12/2019-12-11-an-introduction-accessibility.md",
      "filepathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/blob/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2019/12/2019-12-11-an-introduction-accessibility.md",
      "editpathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/edit/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2019/12/2019-12-11-an-introduction-accessibility.md","slug" : "an-introduction-accessibility","url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2019/12/11/an-introduction-accessibility/","content" :"\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"quote-block \"\u003e\n    \u003cblockquote\u003e\n      \u003cspan class=\"quote-block__quotation-mark\"\u003e“\u003c/span\u003e\n      We need to make every single thing accessible to every single person with a disability.\n      \u003cspan class=\"quote-block__quotation-mark\"\u003e”\u003c/span\u003e\u003ccite\u003e— Stevie Wonder\u003c/cite\u003e\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n  \u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe all know that building accessible products and services is fundamental toward building trust and serving the broadest possible definition of the public.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHowever, keeping accessibility central in the work we do, and the digital products we design and build is a constant challenge for most teams (our team included).\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"image image-right\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/21c-idea-icon-w600sq_w200.png\"  alt='A line drawing of a lightbulb in white, on dark blue background'\n    srcset=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/21c-idea-icon-w600sq_bu.jpg 48w,https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/21c-idea-icon-w600sq_w400.png 400w,https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/21c-idea-icon-w600sq_w200.png 200w\"\n    sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 40vw, 400px\"\n  /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eFortunately, there is a wealth of checklists, tools, videos, and guidance around designing and building accessible products that are compliant with the Section 508 Standards. But those checklists and tools are not much use if you haven’t decided to spend time making your product more accessible.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo how do we make it easier for people to care about accessibility and to start asking the right questions around their work?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs a step in that direction, we put together a resource page we’re calling \u003ca href=\"https://digital.gov/resources/intro-accessibility/\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIntroduction to Accessibility\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/a\u003e. It is our intention to illustrate the point that everyone experiences some form of disability, and the work of correcting our environments to be more accessible benefits everyone.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe hope you’ll use resource this to onboard someone to the topic of accessibility. It is based off of an onboarding presentation that we do for each new employee here in the Technology Transformation Services.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"up-next\"\u003eUp Next\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDecember 19\u003c/strong\u003e: Please join Dan Williams, U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) product lead, as he wraps up 2019 with a special talk dedicated to answering the hardest questions about USWDS from the past year. \u003ca href=\"https://digital.gov/event/2019/12/19/uswds-december-monthly-call/\"\u003eRegister\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"quotes-from-the-field-and-shout-outs\"\u003eQuotes From the Field and Shout-outs\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHuge shout-out to \u003cstrong\u003eRobert Jolly, a Product Manager at 18F\u003c/strong\u003e who recently took on the task of updating the \u003ca href=\"https://accessibility.18f.gov/\"\u003e18F Accessibility Guide\u003c/a\u003e to USWDS 2.0 from USWDS 1.0. Along the way, Robert stated, “I’m not an engineer by trade/title!” yet found his way through the guidance and made it happen.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e“Thanks for all the great work y’all are doing—it’s extremely helpful and sorely needed in the federal government.”\u003c/em\u003e — \u003cstrong\u003eSteven “Shep” Shepherd\u003c/strong\u003e, who works in the Policy and Legislative Initiatives Division at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and is working with to revise their existing web forms using \u003ca href=\"https://designsystem.digital.gov/\"\u003eUSWDS\u003c/a\u003e 2.0.\u003c/p\u003e\n"}
  ]
}