What is Accessibility?
Accessibility is the practice of designing and creating products, services, and environments that can be used by everyone, regardless of their abilities or disabilities. Accessibility ensures that people with different needs and preferences can access and interact with information, technology, and society without barriers or discrimination.
Resources
A list of Accessibility Resources to help you get started on your Accessibility journey….
Accessibility Fundamentals
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Accessible Social
Accessible Social is a free resource and education hub that helps marketers and content creators learn about accessibility and how it relates to social media.
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Giving a damn about accessibility (UXDesign.cc_
A candid and practical handbook for designers by Sheri Byrne-Haber.
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A to Z of Assistive Technology (veroniiiica.com/)
This article lists assistive technologies from A to Z for reading digital text, including tools that offer auto‑scroll, brightness controls and various layouts to support low‑vision readers.
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Confronting ableism to build a more inclusive web (assistivlabs.com)
This article defines ableism and anti‑ableism, explores how design assumptions create barriers and encourages practitioners to challenge ableist assumptions and create inclusive experiences.
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WCAG Compliance Overview (Accessible.org)
Accessible.org explains WCAG versions 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2, discusses their success criteria and conformance levels, and outlines the four accessibility principles.
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WCAG Explained (GetStark.co)
GetStark’s WCAG Explained site demystifies the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, summarising the POUR principles and success criteria to help teams achieve compliance.
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a11y‑webring
The a11y‑webring connects digital accessibility practitioners through a classic webring, fostering community and sharing blogs and resources.
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a11y.cat – curated accessibility resources
The a11y.cat site curates more than 2 200 accessibility resources, tools and guides, making it easy to find best‑practice references for designers, developers and testers.
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The A11Y Project – digital accessibility resources
The A11Y Project is a community‑driven resource that simplifies web accessibility by sharing checklists, articles and tools to help teams design and build accessible products.
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Technology toolkit for disability inclusion (Business Disability Forum)
The Business Disability Forum’s toolkit advises organisations on inclusive technology strategies, assistive tech, everyday tools, workplace adjustments, procurement and training to support disabled employees.
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An Introduction to Accessibility and Inclusive Design Course (Coursera)
Coursera’s course explores disability types, assistive technologies and universal design to help learners build inclusive digital experiences.
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HSBC Accessibility Hub
HSBC’s accessibility hub uses stories and videos to teach digital accessibility and inclusive design, offering resources and guidelines for customers and colleagues.
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Microsoft Accessibility Fundamentals Course
Microsoft Learn’s accessibility fundamentals learning path covers core concepts, modules and benefits so you can design and build accessible products for everyone.
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A beginner's guide to digital accessibility (AbilityNet)
AbilityNet’s guide introduces digital accessibility and the POUR principles (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust) and encourages audits and training to embed accessibility in digital products.
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Document Accessibility
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Checking PDFs for Accessibility
The University of Washington’s guide provides a checklist for checking PDF accessibility, emphasising that accessible source documents and tools like PAC and Ally are key to producing accessible PDFs.
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New tools in Acrobat to improve PDF accessibility
The Accessibility Guy outlines new Acrobat features, including a relocated tags panel, improved editing interface and AI‑powered auto‑tagging to make PDF remediation more efficient.
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PDF Accessibility
WebAIM’s article explains why tagging and structuring a PDF is essential for screen readers and describes the document, content and tag layers in accessible PDFs.
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PDF Accessibility Glossary – PDF Association
The PDF Association’s glossary defines key terms related to PDF accessibility, such as alt text and assistive technology, to help professionals understand technical language.
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Creating and verifying PDF accessibility in Acrobat Pro
This Adobe Acrobat Pro user guide provides step‑by‑step instructions for creating accessible PDFs and verifying conformance using built‑in tools.
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Creating accessible PDFs in InDesign
Adobe’s InDesign guide shows how to structure and tag PDFs properly to meet WCAG and Section 508 compliance when exporting documents.
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Create accessible Office documents
This Microsoft resource explains how to use built‑in accessibility tools across Office apps and offers best practices for crafting accessible documents.
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Make your content accessible to everyone
Microsoft’s support page highlights tools like the Accessibility Checker, templates and alt text guidance to help users create accessible documents, emails and presentations in Microsoft 365.
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How to make documents accessible
Tim Dixon’s guide urges using the Accessibility Checker in Microsoft 365, adding alt text to images and applying headings and lists correctly so documents are usable with screen readers.
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Meeting Accessibility
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Free accessibility checklists for inclusive events
Marie Dubost offers downloadable checklists to make online and in‑person events accessible, reminding organisers that one in five people has a disability and adjustments improve inclusion.
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Accessibility tips for inclusive Teams meetings and live events
This page lists best practices for inclusive Teams meetings—plan ahead, share materials, enable captions and offer accessible Q&A—to ensure participants with disabilities can engage fully.
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Collaborate in Teams meetings with Excel Live
Excel Live allows meeting participants to co‑author spreadsheets directly inside Teams, enabling everyone to interact with data in real time during meetings.
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Present from PowerPoint Live in Microsoft Teams
This Microsoft support article explains how PowerPoint Live integrates slides within Teams to provide captions, high‑contrast slides and translation features for inclusive presentations.
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For Employers & Managers
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Accessibility training: A guide to available resources (Business Disability Forum)
The Business Disability Forum’s guide explains the importance of accessibility and groups training courses by level and job role for easier selection.
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Disability inclusion and accessibility resources (Scope)
Scope’s resource hub offers free articles and toolkits to support disability inclusion and accessibility in businesses.
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Disability Inclusion and Accessibility Report (Mildon.co.uk)
This report guides organisations on attracting, recruiting and retaining disabled employees, covering talent attraction, onboarding, retention, manager training and workplace adjustments.
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VPAT and Accessibility Conformance Reports Explained (EqualEntry.com)
Equal Entry clarifies that a VPAT is a template and an ACR is the completed report; the article advises buyers to request an ACR to evaluate a product’s accessibility against Section 508, WCAG and EN 301 549.
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For Designers
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Accessibility Handoff: a guide for product designers (UXDesign.cc)
This article advises designers to document accessibility requirements during handoff to developers, ensuring each element meets WCAG criteria.
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Inclusive user research in an inaccessible ecosystem
Michele A. Williams argues that accessible prototypes and early user research are essential for inclusive design and calls on researchers to include disabled participants despite prototype constraints.
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Documenting screen reader user experience
BBC’s guide advises documenting screen reader UX by focusing on components rather than pages, considering context and consistency, and providing step‑by‑step instructions to capture non‑visual experiences.
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Building inclusive accessibility research at Booking.com
Booking.com shares how including disabled participants in research informs inclusive design and shifts culture towards accessibility in product teams.
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Inclusive Design – Microsoft
Microsoft’s inclusive design resource teaches teams to recognise exclusion, learn from diversity and solve for one to extend to many, and offers guides such as Inclusive 101.
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Harnessing AI for a more accessible and inclusive internet
Hamish Baxter explains how AI tools like Stark, Axure RP, Accessibility Insights, Useberry and Color Oracle can assist designers in creating accessible experiences and prototyping inclusive interfaces.
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Universal Design Guide – Inclusive Design Resources
The Universal Design Guide offers an open‑source playbook and tools—such as ability prompt cards and bias cards—to help designers and engineers practise inclusive design and develop accessible products.
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For Developers
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WCAG Primer (GovUK)
A primer to help people get up to speed quickly with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
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Bitesized Accessibility (AdamLaki.com)
Adam Laki’s site hosts “Quick and Small Accessibility,” featuring short posts (less than 150 words) that teach bite‑sized accessibility tips
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How to make CAPTCHA accessible
The A11Y Collective’s guide discusses the accessibility challenges of CAPTCHAs and suggests compliant alternatives and best practices to ensure people with disabilities can verify they are human.
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GAAD Accessibility UI Testing Series
Mark Steadman’s series explores automated accessibility UI testing, covering how to choose a testing library, create effective test cases and maximise the results of automated checks.
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A11y Automation: Accessibility automation community
A11y Automation is a community‑driven project that tracks potential accessibility violations and highlights automated tools to inspire innovation and educate everyone about accessibility testing.
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iOS & iPadOS for blind users: A comprehensive guide
The Perkins School for the Blind provides a collection of guides on VoiceOver, zoom, Siri and other accessibility features to help blind users navigate iOS and iPadOS devices.
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Accessibility testing spreadsheet v2
Rachele DiTullio’s updated accessibility audit spreadsheet adds WCAG 2.2 criteria, a WCAG failure column and a five‑point priority scale to help teams track and prioritise issues.
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Accessibility Insights: Accessibility testing tool
Accessibility Insights is a free tool by Microsoft that helps developers identify accessibility issues in web and Windows apps through quick tests and visual helpers.
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Mobile App Accessibility: What Blind Customers Want You to Know
UsableNet highlights common mobile app accessibility barriers—small touch targets, unlabeled icons and hidden action buttons—and offers practical advice to improve experiences for blind users.
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SwiftUI accessibility techniques – GitHub repository
This GitHub repository demonstrates good and bad accessibility techniques for iOS apps, including examples to test with VoiceOver and documentation to apply accessible patterns.
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Setting up a screen reader testing environment
Sara Soueidan explains why manual screen reader testing is vital and provides step‑by‑step instructions for setting up NVDA and selecting browser combinations for effective testing.
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Mobile screen reader cheat sheets
This article provides cheat sheets for TalkBack (Android) and VoiceOver (iOS) screen readers, detailing gestures and commands and showing how to turn screen readers on and off.
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Google Accessibility
Google’s accessibility site states that they co‑create technology with and for people with disabilities and showcases accessible products and initiatives.
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Apple Developer: Accessibility
Apple’s developer portal encourages developers to make apps accessible for everyone and explains how features like VoiceOver and closed captions benefit people with various disabilities.
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Five essential screen reader accessibility tests
TPGi lists five core screen reader tests—checking alt text, headings, form labels, keyboard interactions and links—and recommends tools like JAWS Inspect and ARC Toolkit for testing.
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MagentaA11y accessibility toolkit
MagentaA11y is T‑Mobile’s accessibility toolkit offering web and native criteria, resources and tools to help developers, designers and testers build inclusive digital experiences.
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JAWS vs NVDA vs VoiceOver: A guide to screen readers
This CSS‑Tricks article compares the major screen readers JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver, describing their popularity, features, demo steps and pros and cons to help developers understand non‑visual interfaces.
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Vox Product Accessibility Guidelines
Vox Media’s accessibility checklist recommends high colour contrast, alt text, keyboard navigation, semantic HTML, landmarks and inclusive design for designers, engineers and editorial teams.
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BBC Accessibility Guidelines
The BBC’s accessibility guidelines compile checklists and best practices for teams, UX designers, engineers and QA to build accessible news and digital products.
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The Book on Accessibility – Build an enterprise accessibility program
This site offers an operational guide to build an enterprise accessibility program—providing leadership buy‑in, strategic goals, tactics, policies and reporting to embed accessibility.
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Accessibility first: Rethinking web design and development
Carie Fisher’s article advocates starting with accessibility, discussing inclusive design choices like accessible fonts, structure, contrast, forms and media, and encourages component‑driven development.
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Accessibility Developer Guide (ADG)
The Accessibility Developer Guide provides best practices for implementing accessible websites based on WCAG 2.1, covering semantics, ARIA, keyboard navigation, screen readers and testing tools.
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Learn Accessibility – web.dev
Google’s Learn Accessibility course offers evergreen articles on topics such as why accessibility matters, using ARIA vs HTML, structuring content, keyboard navigation, images, colour and contrast and testing.
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For Social Media Managers
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Accessible Social
Accessible Social is a free resource and education hub that helps marketers and content creators learn about accessibility and how it relates to social media.
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All In – Inclusive Marketing Insights
Google’s All In initiative encourages inclusive marketing that reflects everyone and provides insights and resources to help brands create accessible and inclusive campaigns.
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Social media etiquette for accessibility
CharityComms outlines accessible social media etiquette: include image descriptions, caption videos, use inclusive language, avoid decorative fonts, write CamelCase hashtags, limit emojis and share accessible links.
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Your A‑Z guide for social media accessibility
Life of a Blind Girl’s A‑Z guide offers practical tips for accessible social media posts—writing alt text and captions, using inclusive language and fonts, designing accessible graphics and inclusive hashtags.
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For Content Creators
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Accessible Social
Accessible Social is a free resource and education hub that helps marketers and content creators learn about accessibility and how it relates to social media.
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How screen readers read special characters
ElevenWays’ research explains how various screen readers pronounce special characters and lists which symbols (such as @, &, /, currency symbols and ±) are safe to use when writing accessible content.
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How to create audio descriptions for accessible YouTube videos
This article explains what audio descriptions are, distinguishes integrated vs separate descriptions and offers guidelines for creating descriptive audio to meet accessibility standards.
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A complete guide for content creators to start making accessible content
Pope Tech’s comprehensive guide teaches content creators to use the WAVE tool and follow best practices—alt text, contrast, headings, tables, links, writing and videos—to make content accessible.
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Do you know of a great resource that should be added to this list? Suggest it via the Contact form.
