Accessible Web Design Without Tradeoffs: Leaving No Member Behind Online

Your association’s prospective members are of all levels of ability. With the world moving increasingly online, you can expand your membership and grow your association through inclusive web design.In this podcast, listen to renowned web accessibility expert David Berman. David is the author of the groundbreaking Do Good Design: How Designers Can Change the World, UN Special Advisor on web accessibility and W3C Invited Expert.From the advice shared by David in this episode, we created a handy Web Accessibility Checklist & Worksheet. Download a copyto get your association started on making your website more accessible. 01:55Can you start by telling us a bit about yourself and your work?03:18Why is accessibility important to you?04:30Often people are not sure if they want to make their site accessible, what are the first steps they should take? Do you have any thoughts on the best practices of accessible web design?06:25How would you go about doing a needs analysis of your stakeholders?08:57If our audience has an audience that is an older population would you choose to address visual accessibility over other accessibility functionality (eg. hearing impaired), how would you choose to divide your resources12:18How can we make it more welcoming to our stakeholders with disabilities to self-identify?15:22How do we do accessible design on a limited budget?17:28How do we convince developers that accessible design is important?18:00Can you think of other reasons that make for powerful arguments to design for accessibility?21:52You mentioned that accessible design improved the user experience for all users; do you have examples of this you can share?23:17For our audience members who are not familiar, can you please explain what WCAG is?24:44From WCAG’s three levels of accessibility, how do you choose between which level of WCAG accessibility do follow on your site?26:30Do you have any thoughts on using external accessibility tools or build into the website?29:40Would you prefer an external tool to fill the gap, or do you think it's not effective?32:35Think of a hypothetical client who has an older website and they don’t have the budget to rebuild their website. Where would you start to improve the site?35:27Since a lot of our audience are associations who have member benefits, what advice would you give to association executives to make their member benefits more accessible?41:36How can we make a design artistic and also accessible?47:10How can we include people with accessibility needs in our development process, and not just the usability testing?53:27What are some concrete steps we can take to meet accessibility standards today?55:05What are some examples of popular websites that are most accessible?58:51What if you have to implement accessibility features that don't quite comply with W. 3 C. guidelines?01:02:20What would be your key takeaways for our audience today?01:03:55Can you share a personal habit that has contributed to your success?01:05:03Can you share a tool or strategy that helps you with your work?01:07:00How can people reach you?David's practical inclusive web design suggestions have been summarized in this handy Web Accessibility Checklist & Worksheet. Download a copyto get your association started on making your website more accessible.  Special acknowledgement to our guests for providing powerful insights into member engagement. Visit memberlounge.app to learn more about us.