Helping others understand web accessibility

Roger Johansson on some of the difficulties designers trying to learn accessibility practices are faced with, including challenging documentation, and the even the attitude of designers in the know, a point that Mike Cherim has also made.

In addition to the documentation problem, Mike also mentions the unhelpful attitude held by some people who seem like they don’t want to help the less experienced, the misguided or the misinformed, and instead choose to criticise them. I see it too sometimes, and I have probably been guilty of doing that myself. But I really try to help where I can by sharing what I’ve learned about web accessibility so far. And I’m still learning, so I really appreciate when other people share their knowledge.

It really raises an age old problem, the more familiar you are with a subject, the harder it can become to try and explain it to a novice from the very beginning, or most basic level, without omitting too many vital in-between steps in the process.