The Accessibility Experience
The power of the web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect - Tim Berners-Lee
The presentation by representatives from the User Experience Team at Google was a very insightful look into how they’re approaching accessibility.
Accessibility is more than just code compliance
Google is spending a fair amount of resources researching how people with disabilities interact with their products, and the Internet in general, to ensure they can have a similar experience to those without disabilities.
One of the great aspects about their approach to accessibility testing was that they brought in engineers to watch the test, and even in some instances provide a translator who can explain to engineers what the screen reader is saying.
I was also pleased to hear that accessibility efforts were being applied to Google Search, Gmail, Google Docs, Google Maps, and Google Video. Simple things like headers can go far toward improving the Google experience for those with visual impairments.
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