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Accessibility and Software Development

  • Make sure all stakeholders know:
    • what WCAG is
    • why WCAG compliance is important
    • what happens if public site is not WCAG compliant

Theoretical Project Strategy

Round 1 (MVP):

  • Planning
    • Figure out if it's a public site.
    • If existing project with minimal flexibility:
      • Skip to round >2
    • Figure out money/resource/time for an MVP.
    • Plan for atleast 2 environments that are publicly available
  • Requirements Gathering
    • Gather business requirements
      • Figure out the top 1-3 that provide the highest value
  • Analysis
    • Choose one or more design system and/or framework that's WCAG friendly
    • Cost out resource(s) for development, operations, system testing, semi-automated accessibility testing and manual fixing
  • Design
    • determine technologies that allow fast prototyping
      • technologies that make it easy to do local development is a bonus
    • front end should be decoupled as much as possible
      • re-usable web content generating code is a bonus
    • dependencies on services only if simple setup and minimal to no maintenance
      • dependencies that don't hinder external development is a bonus
    • allows fast and frequent releases with prioritizes lessons learned
      • ability to deploy separately is a bonus
    • In UX design, include personas for users that need accessible sites
  • Development+Testing+QA
    • For your sanity:
      • Source Control
      • Simple CI/CD Pipeline
      • Simple Setup documentation
      • Simple Issue Tracking System
    • Do automated WCAG testing
    • Do semi-automated WCAG testing
    • Do a round of manual WCAG Testing

Round >2

  • Planning
    • Using either an already existing project or the MVP
      • Figure out the pages are static or dynamic and how many
      • If static, question if there's a need for a custom web app or if existing frameworks can be used
      • If dynamic, figure out how many pages will go public
    • Figure out rough target technologies
  • Requirements
    • Gather/Re-visit business requirements
    • Prioritize all to figure out quick wins, items to cut, high value items and low value items
  • Analysis
    • Cost out accessibility compliance along with other blockers such as security, development, infrastructure, etc. Take into account:
      • Number of static pages that are unique enough from one another
      • Number of dynamic pages that are unique enough from one another
      • What percentage of the project uses a design system that considered WCAG
      • What percentage of the project uses components that haven't been WCAG tested
      • How much flexibility there is with editing the front end
      • Whether or not it's been previously WCAG tested
      • How long it'll take for each manual WCAG test and how many manual tests might be needed initially
      • Whether or not there's decided resources to fix accessibility errors
  • Design
    • Figure out target architecture
    • Choose a design system that WCAG friendly
  • Development+Testing+QA
    • Source Control
    • Simple Issue Tracking System for WCAG violations
    • Setup/Architecture/Requirements Documentation
    • CI/CD Pipeline that can execute automated accessibility tests
    • Use semi-automated WCAG testing tools
    • Do manual keyboard testing
    • Turn of screen and try to navigate using keyboard and Screen reader
    • Do manual WCAG Testing
  • Release
Last update: October 13, 2020