Episode 36 of the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast explores actionable steps for integrating accessibility into various services offered by web agencies, from web development and SEO to branding, marketing, and website maintenance.

In the 35th episode of the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast, co-hosts Natalie Garza and Natalie MacLees discuss the critical importance of incorporating digital accessibility into web agency offerings. Natalie MacLees, an expert with over 20 years of experience, explains the increasing legal requirements for accessible websites, the risks of non-compliance, and the benefits of accessibility, including improved SEO and expanded market reach.   

Join co-hosts Natalie Garza and digital accessibility expert Natalie MacLees for episode 34 of the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast. This episode delves into the overlap between accessibility and SEO, highlighting how both can benefit from keyword targeting, content readability, page titles, link purposes, headings, and adaptable content. The hosts discuss various Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) criteria that also enhance SEO and provide practical tips for making your website more accessible and search-engine-friendly. 

Join Natalie Garza and Natalie MacLees on the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast as they discuss the importance of keyboard accessibility in web design. The episode highlights why some users rely on keyboards instead of mice or touchscreens and provides key insights and practical tips for ensuring websites are fully navigable via keyboard. Topics covered include the importance of using semantic HTML, testing custom components thoroughly, and understanding native keyboard interactions. Natalie Garza: Hello everybody, and welcome to the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast. I’m Natalie Garza, I’m one of the co-hosts, and with me today is, Natalie MacLees: Natalie MacLees, the other co-host. Natalie Garza: and she is a digital accessibility expert here to answer our questions on today’s topic, which is keyboard accessibility 101, the basics you can’t ignore.  So we’re gonna talk about why keyboard accessibility is important and some key notes on when you’re testing for keyboard navigation on your website. Why Keyboard Accessibility Matters So why doesn’t everyone just use a mouse or tap on their phones to navigate a website? Why keyboards? Natalie MacLees: Well, not everybody can do that. Not everybody has hands. Not everybody has hands that they can move. So we have lots of different cases where people aren’t able to use a mouse or a touchscreen reliably.  So sometimes it’s limited mobility. Sometimes it can be cognitive disorders or fine motor control issues. Like you can move your hand, but you don’t have a lot of control over exactly where it goes.  If you have no vision or limited vision, you can’t see where a mouse cursor is on a screen and you can’t tell where to tap on a touch screen so you don’t have any other option other than to use a keyboard to navigate around the screen, and also sometimes just power users don’t wanna move their hand off the keyboard. They’re going too fast. They’re setting their keyboard on fire, just going through too fast. No time to move your hand over to the mouse. Natalie Garza: Yeah. Even everyday users like you use Control-C, Control-V to copy/paste. I’m sure a lot of people do. That’s a form of keyboard navigation too. Natalie MacLees: Yeah, which, you know, you could do that with your mouse. You could right-click with your mouse and say copy and paste, but you could also do it with your keyboard. So anything you can do with a mouse, you can do with a keyboard. Natalie Garza: And a lot of assistive devices, although they don’t look like keyboards, they fall under the same category as keyboards. Natalie MacLees: They get treated as a keyboard by the computer. Yeah. As far as the computer is concerned, it’s a keyboard that’s attached. The computer can’t tell the difference. Natalie Garza: Exactly. Alright, so that’s why keyboard and navigation are so important.  Ensuring Keyboard Accessibility on Your Website So how do we translate that into our website? How can we make sure that people using only keyboards can access everything on a site? Natalie MacLees: Yeah, we have to make sure that we’re not building anything that only works with a mouse. And where that usually happens is when we’re building custom components and not using semantic HTML. So the easiest fix is to just always use semantic HTML.  Whenever you can, you wanna try to do that, and HTML has gotten to be a lot more robust, a lot more powerf...

Join Natalie MacLees and Natalie Garza in the 32nd episode of the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast as they discuss how to make social media posts accessible. They cover using emojis, shortened links, adding alt text to images, creating easy-to-read text, avoiding fancy decorative fonts, and ensuring videos have captions and audio descriptions. Learn practical accessibility tips to enhance the inclusivity of your social media content! 

Join Natalie Garza and digital accessibility expert Natalie MacLees in episode 31 of the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast. This episode talks about the implications of accessible emojis, exploring the good, the bad, and the ugly sides. Learn about specific WCAG success criteria, the role of emojis in aiding comprehension, and the challenges they pose for screen readers. 

Join Natalie Garza and Natalie MacLees for the 30th episode of the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast to explore statistics and dive into state-level compliance with accessibility laws and the prevalence of ADA lawsuits. The hosts discuss specific state requirements in Texas, Illinois, and Minnesota, and elaborate on the differences between Section 508 and WCAG guidelines. They also analyze the statistics of ADA lawsuits targeting WordPress, Shopify, and custom-coded websites, and provide crucial compliance deadlines for the European Accessibility Act (EAA) and ADA Title II. 

Join Natalie MacLees and Natalie Garza for the 29th episode of the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast. They delve into the significant rise in ADA lawsuits related to digital properties, examining how these lawsuits affect small business websites and government entities. The discussion covers key statistics, including the increase in state-level lawsuits, repeat lawsuits, and the impact of accessibility widgets. They also emphasize the importance of education and proactive efforts in making websites accessible. 

Join hosts Natalie Garza and Natalie MacLees in episode 28 of the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast as they continue discussing web design for digital accessibility. Topics include the proper use of headings for creating meaningful hierarchy, text spacing and typography principles, consistent navigation design, considerations for limiting motion and animations, and the impact of videos in design. Learn about best practices and resources like WCAG in Plain English and the new AAArdvark Circle community. 

Join hosts Natalie Garza and digital accessibility expert Natalie MacLees in the 27th episode of the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast, as they discuss important considerations for designers in creating accessible websites. They cover topics including color contrast, touch targets, responsive design, hover and focus states, and forms. Also, learn about resources like WCAG in Plain English and the AAArdvark Circle community. 

Join Natalie MacLees and Natalie Garza for the 26th episode of the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast, where they delve into the European Accessibility Act (EAA), discussing why it matters, who needs to comply, and what compliance involves. 

Join Natalie Garza and accessibility expert Natalie MacLees for the 25th episode of the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast, where they dive into quick wins for making websites more accessible using WCAG’s Easy Checks, designed especially for non-developers.

Join hosts Natalie MacLees and Natalie Garza for the 24th episode of the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast, where they discuss the various types of disabilities that affect web accessibility. They explore common misconceptions, highlight the specific needs and best practices for users with vision, auditory, cognitive, physical/motor, and seizure-related disabilities, and discuss additional considerations for temporary and situational disabilities. Natalie Garza: Hello, everybody, and welcome to the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast. This is episode 24. My name is Natalie Garza, and with me today is, Natalie MacLees: Natalie MacLees  Natalie Garza: And she is an accessibility expert here to answer all our […]

Join hosts Natalie Garza and Natalie MacLees for the 23rd episode of the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast as they celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day. They discuss the day’s origins, its purpose, and current statistics on digital accessibility from WebAIM. Listeners will also learn why accessibility is vital and find practical steps and resources to make digital content more inclusive.

Join Natalie Garza and Natalie MacLees for the 22nd episode of the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast. In this episode, they delve into the history of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), covering versions 1.0 through 2.2, and offer an in-depth discussion on the structure and objectives of the upcoming WCAG 3.0. They explore the changes in guidelines, requirements, and vocabulary and discuss the draft state of WCAG 3.0. 

Join Natalie Garza and Natalie MacLees for the 21st episode of the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast, where they delve into the realm of digital accessibility careers. They clarify the distinction between digital and physical accessibility, explore various roles within digital accessibility, and provide advice on how to start a career in the field. From the absence of formal education paths to the importance of continuous learning and certification, they cover it all. Also, get tips on resources and courses to enhance your knowledge and skills in digital accessibility.

Join co-hosts Natalie Garza and accessibility expert Natalie MacLees in the 20th episode of the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast. They discuss their latest project, WCAG in Plain English, a collection of simplified articles derived from the official WCAG guidelines.  The project aims to make WCAG requirements more understandable and accessible to everyone, with clear language, illustrations, and a redesigned organization. 

Join Natalie Garza and accessibility expert Natalie MacLees in the 19th episode of the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast. In this episode, they discuss the vital practice of user testing, especially with people with disabilities. From defining user testing to its execution and why it’s indispensable, learn how involving disabled users can uncover specific issues that would otherwise be missed. They also explore how to find and recruit disabled testers, the help available from specialized organizations, and the benefits of conducting tests remotely.

Join Natalie Garza and accessibility expert Natalie MacLees on the 18th episode of the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast as they discuss various browser extensions that aid in digital accessibility testing. They provide a comprehensive overview of popular tools like the Web Developer extension, aXe by Deque, WAVE by WebAIM, and IBM’s Equal Access Accessibility Checker. The episode also introduces AAArdvark’s tool for automated and manual accessibility audits and highlights the importance of combining automated testing with manual audits for effective accessibility compliance.

Join hosts Natalie MacLees and Natalie Garza on the 17th episode of the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast as they discuss the misconceptions about website accessibility certifications and why they don’t exist. Natalie Garza: Hello, everybody, and welcome to the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast. This is episode 17. I’m Natalie G, the host and mic MC. And with me today is Natalie MacLees: Natalie Mac, accessibility expert. Natalie Garza: yes, she is an accessibility expert here to answer all our questions. And in today’s episode, we’re gonna talk about, “I wanna get my website or app certified as accessible.” Why can’t we get our website certified as accessible, Natalie?  Natalie MacLees: Yeah, this is something that clients often ask for more often than you might think because they want to have, I think they want two things. I think number one, they wanna have some kind of certification that they can display on the website to say, “Look, my website is accessible.” And then I think the second thing that they’re hoping to get is peace of mind, that nobody is going to be able to sue them or send them a demand letter saying that their website isn’t accessible. And unfortunately there is no like official accessibility certification. We have talked extensively in other episodes of the podcast and I like all over online, if you could look up information on accessibility. You’ll see WCAG, the web content accessibility guidelines, referred to over and over again. And those are just a set of guidelines. They’re not a certification scheme in any way, shape or form, and they’re also not comprehensive. So meeting WCAG does not mean that your website is a hundred percent accessible. It’s just a baseline of accessibility. So unfortunately, there is no way to actually certify a website as being accessible.  Natalie Garza: No, because accessibility is not a one-and-done kind of procedure. Natalie MacLees: Yeah, that’s definitely one of the challenges because if, for example, there was some kind of website certification, you would have somebody come in, test your site, certify it as accessible, and then as soon as you went in and made one edit, that would be out the window. You would have to start all over again, and it wouldn’t be cheap, right? It would be pretty time-consuming and pretty time-intensive. Websites change all the time, and it makes it really hard to have, you know, any report or anything that you do is just a point in time, right? On the day that this report was finished, here’s what the state of accessibility was on the site, but it is not like a certification of that status, because probably maybe even that later, that same day, something on the website changed, something new was added, something was edited, something was removed, and now those test results are invalid. Natalie Garza: Mm-hmm. Yeah. It’s like trying to certify a human is healthy, Natalie MacLees: That’s a good analogy. Natalie Garza: The next day, they can catch a cold. That certificate goes out the window. Natalie MacLees: You might cut your finger, you might stub your toe Natalie Garza: A Gator can bite your hand off. Natalie MacLees: My goodness!  Natalie Garza: Sorry, Natalie just came back from Louisiana, you guys, Natalie came from Louisiana where she could have gone on the Gator tours, but she decided not to. Natalie MacLees: Have both my hands, though. Natalie Garza: Yes. Natalie MacLees: I did not feed marshmallows...