What Every Engineer Should Know About Digital Accessibility

Accessibility is a core quality of digital products to be deliberately addressed throughout the development lifecycle. What Every Engineer Should Know About Digital Accessibility will prepare readers to integrate digital accessibility into their engineering practices. Readers will learn how to accurately frame accessibility as an engineering challenge so they are able to address the correct problems in the correct way. Illustrated with diverse perspectives from accessibility practitioners and advocates, this book describes how people with disabilities use technology, the nature of accessibility barriers in the digital world, and the role of engineers in breaking down those barriers. Accessibility competence for current, emerging, and future technologies is addressed through a combination of guiding principles, core attributes and requirements, and accessibility‑informed engineering practices. FEATURES Discusses how technology can support inclusion for people with disabilities and how rigorous engineering processes help create quality user experiences without introducing accessibility barriers Explains foundational principles and guidelines that build core competency in digital accessibility as they are applied across diverse and emerging technology platforms Highlights practical insights into how engineering teams can effectively address accessibility throughout the technology development lifecycle Uses international standards to define and measure accessibility quality Written to be accessible to non‑experts in the subject area, What Every Engineer Should Know About Digital Accessibility is aimed at students, professionals, and researchers in the field of software engineering. A companion site supporting and extending the themes and topics from the book can be found at https://knowaboutaccessibility.org/

Accessibility is a core quality of digital products to be deliberately addressed throughout the development lifecycle. What Every Engineer Should Know About Digital Accessibility will prepare readers to integrate digital accessibility into their engineering practices. Readers will learn how to accurately frame accessibility as an engineering challenge so they are able to address the correct problems in the correct way. Illustrated with diverse perspectives from accessibility practitioners and advocates, this book describes how people with disabilities use technology, the nature of accessibility barriers in the digital world, and the role of engineers in breaking down those barriers. Accessibility competence for current, emerging, and future technologies is addressed through a combination of guiding principles, core attributes and requirements, and accessibility‑informed engineering practices. FEATURES Discusses how technology can support inclusion for people with disabilities and how rigorous engineering processes help create quality user experiences without introducing accessibility barriers Explains foundational principles and guidelines that build core competency in digital accessibility as they are applied across diverse and emerging technology platforms Highlights practical insights into how engineering teams can effectively address accessibility throughout the technology development lifecycle Uses international standards to define and measure accessibility quality Written to be accessible to non‑experts in the subject area, What Every Engineer Should Know About Digital Accessibility is aimed at students, professionals, and researchers in the field of software engineering. A companion site supporting and extending the themes and topics from the book can be found at https://knowaboutaccessibility.org/