0219 - Shift Left Design with Pat Clark

Today I talk with Pat Clark, Senior Staff Engineer at ChargePoint, responsible for the Driver Portal and other web services. Pat is a unique blend of entrepreneur and software engineer with a passion for good design. This will be a provocative conversation about the state of the internet for people with disabilities and diverse needs. So, let’s start with this idea that Accessibility is the Zeroth usability requirement, that we’ve got to consider it in parallel with every other requirement, everywhere, all the time, all at once. Q: Why? Why bake accessibility into everything, why bring it into focus, and how do start the process? Q: What skills do you see as essential? Q: Can you talk about some examples? Q: You called it an ARIA label, so basically, nearly all access problem is an HTML problem. Q: what QA tools do you have in your toolbox. Q: What about installing overlays... Q: What if you break something? Q: You may be putting an awful lot of work into address a small and shrinking portion of the population. Q: Does accessibility affect you personally? Q: Let's finish on an observation that some of the foundational technologies developed for accessibility have gone on to improve everyone's experience of the web. Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add before we wrap-up?. Notes: https://www.chargepoint.com/en-gb/ https://driver.chargepoint.com/ (driver portal) https://www.w3.org/WAI/people-use-web/tools-techniques/ https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Accessibility/ARIA/Attributes/aria-label Acknowledgements Music Title: The World Artist: Ben Prunty (2012) Source: https://www.benpruntymusic.com/ License: Non-transferable license. Permission granted by Ben Prunty Cover Art Title: Screenshot+HighContrast+GlowDiffused Artist: Allen Higgins Source: podcast-PatAllen.pptx License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Podcast License Design Talk (dot IE) CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 The license can be viewed at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 By taking part you give permission for your voice to be recorded, for the recording to be edited, and for it to be posted and published as a podcast.