I started my self-learning journey into the world of Accessibility in the middle of 2020. If I’m completely honest I was very naive and did not understand what was behind that door. I soon came to realise that there is so much to learn, but so many teachers I can learn from.
Accessibility is a word that can get thrown around like confetti (when it does get used anyway), to make things look good. The thing is, those who do that can rarely say what it actually means.
To some it’s about fonts and colours. Whilst to others it’s a ramp outside a building. To others still it’s a clear voice reading out what is on screen. For many of us who don’t rely on such things it just means accessibility, because it’s accessibility isn’t it…. Of course, it’s all of those things and more.
As is started to look at the community voices out there, and reviewing the submitted sessions for Scottish Summit 2021, I began to appreciate that the door didn’t lead to a closet where accessibility was stuffed away but actually led to a whole world where there was more variation and vibrancy than I’d ever even started to comprehend.
Even within the tech world, there is so much more to it than most of us will know. The key is that we need to start to educate ourselves – bit by bit, little by little. We’ll never make anything perfect because that just isn’t possible, but we can make small changes that will cumulatively combine to create a seismic shift in the way we work.
From apps to websites, platforms to platformers, grand events to the daily grind. Small change, big differences.
The Scottish Summit Starting Point!
Covering the Scottish Summit Accessibility track made me focus in on those sessions, moderating the chat and ensuring the tech worked. It opened my eyes to the amazing speakers and the depth of the topics being discussed. It made me look at areas that I would normally ignore as just “not being me”.
Did you miss it? Maybe you managed to catch some of it and want to see the rest? Or perhaps you even saw it all but want to share with your friends and colleagues?
Well GOOD NEWS! Not only have all the videos been uploaded to YouTube but there is also a curated Accessibility Playlist where you can catch all the sessions that discussed the subject!
You can find the playlist here – NOW WITH the amazing session by Ee Lane Yu [Thanks to Mark Christie for his work in getting this sorted!]
I’ll be releasing a series of blog posts over the coming weeks focusing in on each of the sessions and hilighting the amazing topics discussed. You’ll find them all on the home page or by visiting the Accessibility category page. In the meantime though, don’t wait for me, go and watch and enjoy – and please subscribe, share, like, and comment.
Hopefully, like me, you’ll quickly come to realise that there is so much to learn, but thankfully so many teachers!