From the course: Using AI for Accessible Design Workflows

Generate a culture of iterative accessibility

From the course: Using AI for Accessible Design Workflows

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Generate a culture of iterative accessibility

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- [Instructor] In this video, I'm going to show you some tips on generating a culture of iterative accessibility and why that's necessary. Why does your organization need to foster a culture of iterative accessibility? That is, a culture where everyone is aware that change is coming and it's contributing to helping make it happen. Well, first of all, you need that because standards change. WCAG is three now, it will be a higher level, maybe even when you are watching this video. So those standards will change. Technology will change. People with disabilities have access to content that they could not have access to not that long ago, and you will be able to say that same thing a year from now, two years from now. So that's constant. Culture changes. People now find it unacceptable, frankly, that digital online content is not accessible to people who are hearing impaired, vision impaired, motor impaired, have cognitive disability issues or other things that keep them from accessing online content. So how do you keep up with that? A culture in your organization is necessary. Here's a tool that I have found helpful in building that kind of culture. One-question surveys that are sent out very broadly throughout an organization where you ask people just like one question, like share a concern you have about the state of accessibility in our project. You're doing two things. You're learning and you are fostering a culture of iterative accessibility. Combined with those kinds of broad based, broadly targeted surveys, for people who are more committed, more involved, have periodic surveys that ask questions about how they see the state of the visual, the audio, or some other aspect of accessibility at your website. Why do they think, closed captioning is important? Surface concerns they may have about the use of artificial intelligence in implementing accessibility and invite insights into inclusivity and design. So keep that process going where you're both learning from people in your organization and keeping the atmosphere charged where people are talking about and thinking about iterative change in accessibility. Here's a really simple tool to build a culture of iterative accessibility. An old-fashioned suggestion box. Create a digital suggestion box for documenting accessibility problems, suggestions, and encouraging ongoing input. Keep the channels open, maintain a mix of activities, surveys, discussions, investigation meetings, keep people engaged in the continuous improvement of accessibility and thinking about and learning about and learning to wield AI to do that. Here's the takeaway. Accessibility change is constant. The standards are changing. Today I'm looking at WCAG 3. When you watch this video, maybe it will be 3.1. One thing we know for sure, the technology is advancing, the culture is advancing, laws are changing. So there's a constant need to maintain an atmosphere of iterative accessibility throughout your organization to keep up with all this.

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