My opening keynote from Accessibility Camp Boston 2012 - where I talked about Accessibility, Design, Innovation and using accessibility as a design tool to make designs better for everyone, whether they have a disability or not.

1. I think some of why people don’t do Web
accessibility is a lack of awareness, but a lot
of it is because people think it’s too hard.
What would help is if you can start teaching
people HOW to integrate it into typical
workflows for specific audiences—devs.
project managers, Scrum Masters, designers

2. I think they just genuinely struggled to
understand the benefits. Many fail to realize
that it’s not just about people who are blind
or deaf—many people could benefit from a
more accessible site.

3. Derek, all this stuff that you’ve taught us...
yes, it makes this more accessible, but really,
fundamentally, this is just a better design,
period.

4. Accessibility as a Design Tool

5. Derek Featherstone
feather@simplyaccessible.com
@feather

6. Accessibility is not binary, all-or-nothing, black and
white. We have every shade of grey in between. How
you view this point frames everything that you learn
and do about accessibility.

7. extremes extremes

8. IDEO: The Deep Dive

9. ‘
‘
By examining the extreme ends of a set of
phenomena in depth, the entire universe of
relationships can be illuminated since other
instances will fall somewhere on the map of
relations and links.

14. The tools a person uses
provide insight into need.

18. Tools to get the job done.

19. Tools to get the job done.

20. oneswitch.org.uk/4/DIY/switches-
suckpuff.htm

21. oneswitch.org.uk/4/DIY/switches-
suckpuff.htm

22. oneswitch.org.uk/4/DIY/switches-
suckpuff.htm

23. oneswitch.org.uk/4/DIY/switches-
suckpuff.htm

24. oneswitch.org.uk/4/DIY/switches-
suckpuff.htm

28. Blossoming as a Child
youtube.com/watch?v=r0adFdlbYZE

29. So, how do we use
Accessibility as a Design Tool?

30. Always start at the beginning
of the design process

34. 1

35. 2
1

36. 2
1
3

37. 2
4
1
3

47. Derek Featherstone
feather@simplyaccessible.com
@feather