🎓 The course

Accessibility, four parts, plain language

This was written to train one small team, and then made free for anyone else. It assumes you know nothing about accessibility and it does not talk down to you. About seventy minutes of reading in total, or four comfortable sessions with a group.

Start at part 1 → Or test what you know

01 The four parts

They are meant to be read in order, because each one leans on the one before. If you only have time for one, read part 1. If you only have time for two, add part 4.

  1. Part 1about 17 minutes

    Foundations

    What accessibility actually means, and why the way you frame the problem changes what you build.

    • The medical model and the social model, and why the difference is practical rather than academic
    • Who accessibility is for, which is far more people than most teams assume
    • The curb cut effect, which is your strongest argument in any budget meeting
    • The seven principles of universal design, each with a physical and a digital example, plus four more real world ones
    • How accessibility, universal design and inclusive design differ
    • What a reasonable accommodation is, and when one is still needed

    You will be able to explain to a colleague why the step is the problem rather than the wheelchair, and argue for a budget without relying on sympathy.

    Five diagrams. Goes deeper in the models of disability.

  2. Part 2about 19 minutes

    The standards and frameworks

    There are a lot of numbers in this field and they scare people. Almost all of them do one of four jobs, and once you can name the job, the map gets simple.

    • The four kinds of document, and how to tell a treaty from a law from a standard from a technique
    • WCAG, ARIA, ATAG and UAAG, and how they serve each other
    • EN 301 549, ISO/IEC 30071-1, ISO 9241-171 and ISO/IEC 29138
    • PDF/UA, EPUB Accessibility and ISO/IEC 23859 for documents
    • ISO 21542, BS 8300, ISO 23599 and the ADA Standards for buildings
    • The CRPD, the ADA, Section 508, the EAA and the Web Accessibility Directive
    • How they interconnect, and a "which one do I reach for" table

    You will be able to read a tender that asks for "EN 301 549 conformance" and know exactly what is being asked, and what to answer.

    Two diagrams and six common confusions cleared up.

  3. Part 3about 18 minutes

    Measuring on site

    The hands on part for the built environment. Slope maths, a tape measure and a repeatable way through a building.

    • Slope three ways: ratio, percent and degrees, and which to put in a report
    • Running slope and cross slope, and why the second one gets forgotten
    • Measuring a ramp with a digital level, and with nothing but a 600mm level and a tape
    • The seven ramp checks, with typical values and the reason each exists
    • Worked examples with real numbers, including the ones that fail
    • A ramp checker that takes your rise and run and draws the whole thing, landings included
    • Key dimensions for doors, circulation, counters and controls
    • A journey based audit method, and a printable field record sheet

    You will be able to walk up to a ramp with a level and a tape and produce a finding a builder can act on.

    Seven measurement diagrams, a ramp checker and a record sheet.

  4. Part 4about 18 minutes

    Testing what you build

    The same job as part 3, for a screen instead of a building. This is the part that turns knowledge into a habit.

    • What an automated tool can decide, and what only a person can
    • A fifteen minute pass you can run on any page, in a fixed order
    • Keyboard testing, with the seven questions to ask while you Tab
    • Screen reader keystrokes for NVDA and VoiceOver, and the browse mode trap that stops every beginner
    • Zoom, reflow at 320 pixels, and the four text spacing values
    • Colour, contrast and reduced motion checks
    • Phone gestures, and the three checks only a real device will show you
    • How to write a finding so somebody can act on it, with severity levels

    You will be able to take any page, find the real problems in it in a quarter of an hour, and write them up so they get fixed.

    A twenty row test record sheet.

02 Running it with a team

Reading alone does not change how people work. If you are delivering this to a group, this is the shape that works.

1

Send part 1 ahead

Ask everyone to read it before you meet. Then spend the session on one question: where in our own work does the step exist? Nobody has to be an expert to answer that, and the answers are always more specific than you expect.

2

Do part 2 as a lookup, not a lecture

Nobody memorises standards, and nobody should try. Read it once, then keep the "which one do I reach for" table where the team can find it. Come back to a name when a real project raises it.

3

Make parts 3 and 4 practical

Do not read these at a desk. Print the record sheet, pick a real building or a real page, and go and use it. An hour spent measuring one actual entrance teaches more than reading the section three times.

4

Finish with the quiz, then set a habit

The quiz shows what stuck. The habit is what lasts. Pick one thing that now happens on every piece of work, such as a keyboard pass before anything ships, and hold to it before adding a second.

The mistake to avoid

Do not try to fix everything at once

A team that comes out of training with a list of ninety issues fixes none of them. Sort by severity, take the blockers, and ship those. Something that stops a person finishing a task beats twelve things that merely annoy. Then come back.

The habit that pays for itself

A keyboard pass before anything ships

It takes five minutes, it needs no tools, and it catches more real problems than everything else on the list put together. If your team adopts one thing from these four parts, make it this.

03 What goes with it

The course is the spine. These are the things you keep open beside it.

📖 The glossary

102 terms in plain language, searchable, each with an example and a link to the page that covers it properly. Keep this open while you read.

🧠 The quiz

Twenty-seven questions across five topics, with instant feedback. Filter to one topic to drill the part you just read.

🎯 The ten lessons

The same component built two ways, broken and fixed, side by side and live. The fastest way to feel the difference rather than read about it.

💻 Developer code examples

The markup that fixes most of what part 4 teaches you to find, plus seven live ARIA component patterns you can copy.

📱 The social media guide

For whoever runs the accounts. Alt text per platform, captions, hashtags, and a 16 point checklist.

🔖 Tools and links

Every tool, standard and screen reader mentioned across the four parts, in one place, with the free ones marked. Ends with a printable card of every number the course teaches, from contrast ratios to ramp slopes.

Everything here is free to read, print and use with your own team. If you would like someone to run it with you, or to audit something specific, get in touch.

Start at part 1 →
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