Accessibility Statement

Accessibility is extremely important to me, not only in my role as an inclusive designer, but also as someone profoundly impacted by disability. I am neurodivergent and physically, invisibly disabled. I’m also surrounded by neurodivergent and disabled loved ones (the joke is we run in packs!).

This accessibility statement is a demonstration of the importance of accessibility and formal commitment so that I can be accountable to others…and myself. A commitment to “walk the walk”.

My commitment to accessibility

I will:

  • Publish and maintain a personal accessibility statement.
  • Advocate for disability, neurodivergence, and accessibility in my local community, my personal network, and organizations I work with and for.
  • Conform to WCAG 2.2 AA standards in my own portfolio, and test my work.
  • Conform to at least WCAG 2.2 AA in my paid work, wherever possible. When there are things out of my control preventing conformance, I will advocate for change.
  • Advocate for and practice accessible-first design and “shift left” approach including accessibility annotations, with clear accessibility acceptance criteria.
  • Advocate for and follow best practices for inclusive research, including ensuring fair compensation.
  • Choose tools with strong accessibility and accessibility statements whenever possible.
  • Stand against accessibility overlays and “add-on accessibility” (Adrian Roselli has repeatedly demonstrated why these are problematic).
  • Stand against the untested and hasty use of AI for demonstrated bias against disabled people.
  • Follow best practices for document accessibility.
  • Follow best practices for inclusive presentations.
  • Test my own work (I use WAVE and ARC toolkit, in addition to my own manual review).
  • Continually learn about disability and neurodivergence epidemiology, disability theory, and accessibility best practices. I also set goals to test my knowledge, with the WAS certification as my current goal.
  • Network with the accessibility community, particularly a11y.
  • Share my learnings, experience, and resources, not just in the accessibility community but also in design and data visualization communities.

I am not perfect. I’m also not a developer or an expert in PDF tagging. I lack the budget for robust testing tools and assistive technology. All of this means that my mistakes may often live in the technical details. I am continuing to learn HTML, CSS, and Javascript to address these issues.

Known accessibility issues in my portfolio

I have tried to address all known issues within my control, but there are still some challenges:

  • I do not have the budget for assistive technology, particularly screen readers. I have only tested my work with Apple Voiceover. I am also not an expert or regular user, so I am prone to misunderstanding the preferred experience.
  • I have not tested my portfolio in all browsers, but have focused on the most prevalent 4: Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge.
  • Some of my external links navigate to inaccessible sites or PDFs. I have prioritized accessible versions wherever possible.
  • Some of my external links navigate to videos that lack audio descriptions, sign language interpretation, and / or closed captioning (or rely on automated closed captioning). This includes my own presentations (even when I’ve provided the organization / conference with manually edited SRT files for accurate captioning). This includes my folklore documentary.

Feedback

To report any accessibility issues please email josh@moxiea11y.com.