Your Design is not Complete Unless it is Accessible

Website accessibility is often an afterthought at the end a project (if thought of at all), but what if we switched focus and started thinking about it at the beginning of a project during the initial design phase?

This session is geared for designers and themers who would like to learn more about steps you can take to make accessible design considerations a part of your design process. It may be that you have never considered accessibility for design or you are just not sure where to begin. It could be that you have heard that accessible sites are complicated, expensive, or ugly. No matter the reason - we are here to dispel some myths around accessibility and good design and give you some ways to incorporate accessibility during the design phase.

We plan to cover the following topics:

• Overview on accessibility - what is it? why should you care?
• How to start thinking about accessibility during the design process
• UX/UI accessibility issues and ways to overcoming these

Along the way we will also touch on how incorporating accessibility into your daily lives can help attract a wider audience, ensure a higher site ranking with search engines, and improve your overall user experience on both desktop and mobile devices. As a follow-up we will provide a list of resources and tools that are an essential part of accessible design.

About the Presenters

Carie Fisher - Senior Front End Developer

Carie is a seasoned front-end developer who has been focused professionally on Drupal since 2009. In her role as a Senior Front-End Developer at Mediacurrent, she thrives on the challenge of turning a static mock-up into a responsive, live site that is both beautiful and functional.

Carie started her professional life as a Drosophila (fruit fly) scientist but found she was more interested in editing laboratory websites. After completing her Masters degree in Communications, she began creating websites for several university departments where she encountered her first Drupal project: merging two Drupal 5 sites into one new Drupal 6 site with a completely new theme. She rose to the challenge and has worked with Drupal exclusively ever since.

Chris Doherty - Senior Front End Developer

Chris’s mix of creative talent and technical understanding provides clients with high-quality screen-based experiences. His depth of experience and education includes seven years Drupal experience and brings together the disciplines of technology, writing, and design.

A New Yorker, born and raised, Chris holds a Bachelor's Degree in English and fine arts from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA. He completed his design education at Portfolio Center in Atlanta. Chris spent the early years of his career in the New York office of Sapient Corp. designing web interfaces for clients such as Morgan Stanley, LEGO, and Motorola. In his search for a reliable CMS, he stumbled upon Drupal 5 and his love for Drupal theming began. In 2004, Chris founded a design firm in Atlanta along with his wife Linda. During his time at Citizen Studio Inc, he began writing code, working with Drupal and getting involved with the Atlanta Drupal community.