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The web is about information accessibility

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It's really a basic human freedom that we

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are just really beginning to talk about in

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the last decade.  It's important

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therefore that everybody have this freedom

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any freedom that's only allocated to a few

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is not really a freedom.

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The web is about information and  it's

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important that people can access the

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information that they need in order to

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complete a workflow or get their job done

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finish a task.

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I think the web should be accessible to

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everyone all the time. I grew up with it

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being easily accessible to me. It's how

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I learnt information easily. I can't

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imagine someone not being able to just

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google something instantly, and getting

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what they need.

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I think websites should be accessible

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because...the web is founded kinda on this

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idea of sharing information and if you

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can't share information or if some people

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can't see it , then it's not truly being shared.

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We all have different abilities and

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disabilities, and if we're all going to be

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able to get the same content and interpret

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it in a somewhat similar fashion, it has

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to be given to us in that way and

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accessible so that we can actually reach it

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Accessibility is important for a number of

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reasons.  For one, there are laws that

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apply.Another is, it can relate to our

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reputation. And a third is thatby

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paying attention to it, we create a more

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inclusive educational environment.

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I think we are really good as developers

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at being...focusing on the 80% case.

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Focusing on how do we make every 4 out of

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every 5 of our users happy. How do we

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build things for those group of people,

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because the last 20% is always hard.

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But I say that the web is for 100%.

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It's for everybody, which is what

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Tim Burners-Lee said.

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I'm definitely am very moved by this

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notion of inclusiveness. I mean I think

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that, for me it's a part of who I...

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this is important to me. But  there's

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also just the sort of,  the notion of

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of having everybody's contributions to the

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sort of...the knowledge.

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Big challenge is, to escape your own

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viewpoint. And to not make the assumption

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that everyone sees the web the way you see

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it, on the device you see,  the way

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you use it. And so when you're creating

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web pages, that's the biggest challenge,

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is getting outside of where you're sitting.

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The biggest obstacle to accessibility,

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I think is...is pure knowledge.

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It's really about putting yourself in the

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mind of a person with disabilities.

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A person who has, who has no motor skills

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has no hands, has a lack of vision, has a

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lack of hearing. May have a

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cognitive disability. To be able to put

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yourselves in their shoes and understand

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how are they working with the thing that

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I'm building or designing right now,

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can they use it?

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The alternative is, you build something

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someone says "oh no it's not accessible!"

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and so you go back and try to fix it but

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you probably have been doing the wrong

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thing at many places  you know you may

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have hundreds of images with no alt text,

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you may have navigation that's very confused

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or you are relying on libraries that...

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open internet explorer

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it's just that the technologies aren't

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going to figure out.  And so that's

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when someone says, it's too much,

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too expensive, it's too much work.

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Well...just do it from the beginning and

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it'll...it'll probably get a

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quality product with less work.

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Accessibility is important to incorporate

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early on because if you don't

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incorporate it early on, you will

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incorporate it later at greater expense,

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with a certain amount of time you don't have

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with a certain amount of money you

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don't have to try to make it better.

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Accessibility, unfortunately like

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everything else in design and web design

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has to be done from the very beginning.

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So whether you're designing for different

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devices, whether doing for different kinds

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of human abilities, all those things have

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to be thought of from the very beginning

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and built into your concept of what your

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your plan is. Of course nobody wants to

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take time at the end. We're almost there,

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we just want to get it out, and that's the

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mistake many of us make. It's like

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"I'll just get it out, then I'll go back and fix it."

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No. Doesn't ever happen. There's always

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a next project.

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The first step in getting an accessible

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site, is to work with the management, so

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they understand the value of making it

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accessible, and also helping them

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understand that  we can do pretty

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much anything they want and be accesible.

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If you just talk about accessibility, it

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may not be immediately appreciated as

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something important to do. But if you

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start talking about quality and  the

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overlap of search engine optimisation and

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accessibility and things of that nature

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that...that will tend to get people's

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attention more.

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When I started, I was a designer and I

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wanted to make things look pretty. And you

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don't think about anything besides the

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aesthetics. And what I soon realised was

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that when you have something that works

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it already looks good, right, so

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that's where I started to move towards

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things being functional then the beauty

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came along after that.

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I don't believe that making a site

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accessible inhibits creativity. In fact

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I would argue it...it...helps creativity,

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it improves creativity.

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Good accessible design often closely

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relates to good usable design. And we

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found a really close parallel between good

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mobile design, mobile for mobile devices

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and the simplicity and clarity of good

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accessible design. 

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Safari

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skip to primary content. 

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In page link. Current Student. Future Student.

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Menu Item. Accessible Technology.

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 So they are all inter-related

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and basically if you're making a really

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complicated site with lots of stuff on it.

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When you're doing, using different methods

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all over the place.  You're probably

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not building that great a site anyway.

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The way we create websites today, has

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improved from 10 years ago. We're not

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using in-line styles, we're not only

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designing for 1 screen size. So the

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developers and designers are forced to

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design for every person and every device.

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We can't go backwards, we can't become

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limited again.

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Primarily what you can do as a designer

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to  to check for accessibility is

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making sure that you have good headings.

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Good proper headings and headings

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structure  good labels on inputs

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 good labels on buttons and links

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so making sure you're using the right tags

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and the second best thing I would say,

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at least that I do are  checking

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with the keyboard, just looking to see

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keyboard navigation, making sure there's

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you know there's good focus, indicators

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and that you don't get the focus trapped

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anywhere.

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The heart of the challenge in  sort of

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the development world is that many

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developers you know look around and find

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open source libraries with really cool

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stuff. So they find ways to make things

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bounce across the screen, or make things

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get big and small and so on. And it just

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doesn't enter their mind to evaluate them

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for accessibility.

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When you're looking at a java script

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library or a content management system,

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piece of code that you would like to use,

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you need to look both at, does it do what

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you want for the web and does it also,

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is it also accessible? In other words,

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does it do it for you and for everybody.

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So as soon as you build something, you go

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back and you check it and check it over

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and over again. On multiple browsers, on

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multiple machines. You know I'll even call

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people you know overseas,and say "hey can

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you can you find it, can you check it, is

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it working for you? Oh ok good you know.

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And now they have tools out there where

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you can check on every single browser out

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there. In the past, that was really

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important, it still is.  We have a few

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browsers out there, like a handful of

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browsers that we use, but we need to check

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it on on every possible system and platform.

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The best thing that you can do ultimately

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to check a design be it, checking for

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usability or accessibility is actually

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putting it in front of users and seeing if

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they can use it.

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You know, no matter how great your site is

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you know you may think you're hitting all

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the standards, then you watch someone go

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through it and you say well, wow they had

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...that didn't work out so well

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When I think of what a university does at

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it's core is to, not take everyone with

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very similar ideas and turn out people

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with the same ideas, but it's to benefit

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from a broad range of abilities and skills

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and different perspectives. And I see

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accessibility and disability as being a

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part of that spectrum.

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I think accessibility needs to be talked

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about more, it needs to be taught in

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the institution, in schools, it needs to

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be enforced in institutions and commercial

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environments.

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As new technology comes out, I think there

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will be some that just neglect it

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completely, and others that champion it.

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And the ones that champion it will be more

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user-friendly to everybody else, and they'll

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win in the marketplace.

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I think the future of the web is to

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be making fewer and fewer assumptions

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about how other people use it. We have

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mobile devices, we have screen readers,

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and we even have your web page or your

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content might be used by another machine

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so I think the fewer of the web is to

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continue making fewer and fewer

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assumptions and more universal content

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that is not restrictive or exclusive.

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I think it can be very challenging for a

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certain applications to serve people with disabilities

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but that's where the engineer needs to

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think about "why did I become an engineer"

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to make the impossible, possible, to solve

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big problems. And this is a big problem,

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so let's attack it, let's solve it.

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