---
type: podcast
authors:
  - alex-patterson
  - brittney-postma
episode: 38
recording_date: August 4, 2022 2:15 PM
season: 2
published: published
podcast: CodingCat.dev
chapters_done: false
cloudinary_convert: false
cover: https://media.codingcat.dev/image/upload/v1655831842/main-codingcatdev-photo/A11y_with_Ben_Myers.jpg
devto: https://dev.to/codingcatdev/238-a11y-with-ben-myers-517g
excerpt: Ben guides us through how A11y is hard to understand if you don’t use it everyday. He also shows us many tools that we can use to help make more accessibility compliant websites.
guests:
  - ben-myers
hashnode: https://hashnode.codingcat.dev/podcast-2-38-a11y-with-ben-myers
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      name: 'crashmax-dev/fireworks-js',
      site: 'https://github.com/crashmax-dev/fireworks-js/'
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    {
      author: 'alex-patterson',
      name: 'Next.js 12.2',
      site: 'https://nextjs.org/blog/next-12-2?ck_subscriber_id=1233693656'
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    {
      author: 'brittney-postma',
      name: 'Show My Chat Walkthrough',
      site: 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA_MAQppvME'
    },
    {
      author: 'brittney-postma',
      name: 'Build a Component Library with SvelteKit',
      site: 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUslcJLGk9g&t=1922s'
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      name: 'Introduction to Web Accessibility',
      site: 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPzr8vDNZ9Y'
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    { author: 'ben-myers', name: 'Teach Jenn Tech', site: 'https://twitch.tv/JennJunod' },
    { author: 'ben-myers', name: 'Jutanium Stream', site: 'https://twitch.tv/Jutanium' }
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slug: 2-38-a11y-with-ben-myers
sponsors:
  - storyblok
spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/33Zc3prYvzVFI9M66BjWHH?si=Qfl5jsSrQCOb3PdU5eqEbA
start: September 7, 2022 12:00 PM
title: A11y with Ben Myers
youtube: https://youtu.be/pnRUoW2OZOU
---

## Questions

1. Tell us about yourself Ben?
2. Has accessibility always been important and we just keep dropping the ball? Or was it the famous Domino’s case where they excluded people with disabilities from using it’s website?
3. A11y is a [Numeronym](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numeronym)!
4. What are some good tools to use to check for accessibility?
5. What things are included in A11y?
   1. Color Contrast
      1. [Contrast Checker](https://www.notion.so/160cd5bd1ef14296ae79f113a10dcbcd)
      2. [Another Contrast Checker](https://app.contrast-finder.org/)
      3. [Axe](https://github.com/dequelabs/axe-core)
      4. [Color Contrast Post](https://benmyers.dev/blog/fix-low-contrast-text/)
      5. [Contrast Finder](https://app.contrast-finder.org/)
   2. Only use a website with Keyboard
      1. Tab order
      2. [skip to content](https://accessibility.oit.ncsu.edu/it-accessibility-at-nc-state/developers/accessibility-handbook/mouse-and-keyboard-events/skip-to-main-content/)
6. What is Aria? A filler for your markup.
   1. [Ben Meyers on What is Aria](https://benmyers.dev/blog/aria/)
   2. [Accessibility Tree](https://www.notion.so/Ben-Myers-d5cee3c690db477f99108d9c14ae2fe5)
7. Alt tags, do you describe decorative images?

   1. Telling a story of the image.
   2. Convey the message, but also the tone.
   3. Not where it isn’t relevant.
   4. If you don’t need alt text, use `alt=""`.

8. Since you work on Microsoft Docs, what are they doing to help assist those who use Docs in a non-traditional way?

> In the United States, 61 million adults are living with a disability, according to current [federal data](https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/infographic-disability-impacts-all.html)
> . A [2017 National Health Interview Survey](https://www.afb.org/research-and-initiatives/statistics/adults)
>  found that 26.9 million people in the United States (10% of adult Americans) reported experiencing vision loss. An estimated 15% of American adults (37.5 million) reported some trouble hearing, according to a [2012 National Health Interview Survey](https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/quick-statistics-hearing)
> .

### Links

[Inaccessible Recipe List Site](https://inaccessible-recipes.netlify.app/) - [Repo](https://github.com/BenDMyers/inaccessible-recipe-list)

[https://blog.codinghorror.com/falling-into-the-pit-of-success/](https://blog.codinghorror.com/falling-into-the-pit-of-success/)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_cow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_cow)
