Accessibility = Consideration - Precious Onyewuchi ![rw-book-cover](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NqS_FcyMWsM/maxresdefault.jpg) ## Metadata - Author: [[CHAOSS]] - Full Title: Accessibility = Consideration - Precious Onyewuchi - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: - #accessibility - #inclusion - #opensourcedesign - #wordpress - #ospo - #education - #documentation - #wcag22 - #alttext - #captions - #equity - #designsystems - #contributoronboarding - #zenodo - #github Author: Precious Onyewuchi Source: YouTube Talk (Conference Session) Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM date created: {{date:YYYY-MM-DD}} {{time:HH:mm}} --- # ♿️ Title: Accessibility = Consideration — Deep Notes & Strategy (Precious Onyewuchi) ## 🧭 Table of Contents: - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes (Chronological with Timestamp Links)](#-notes-chronological-with-timestamp-links) - [⏱️ 00:02–01:12 — Intro & Setup](#t-0002) - [⏱️ 01:36–02:12 — Speaker Background](#t-0136) - [⏱️ 02:00–03:10 — Why This Talk Exists](#t-0200) - [⏱️ 03:10–04:14 — Short & Long Definitions of Accessibility](#t-0310) - [⏱️ 04:22–06:12 — Concrete Examples (Alt Text, Keyboard, Infrastructure)](#t-0422) - [⏱️ 06:16–07:24 — Access Tools: Zenodo, DOI, arXiv, GitHub](#t-0616) - [⏱️ 07:48–10:14 — Why Accessibility Matters (Equity, Rights, Longevity)](#t-0748) - [⏱️ 10:14–12:29 — How To Practice: Design, Content, Communication, Allyship](#t-1014) - [📖 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-assessment) - [✅ Logical Validity & Fallacies](#-logical-validity--fallacies) - [🛡️ DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) - [🔍 SEO Evaluation](#-seo-evaluation) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) ### 📚 References: Include a list of sources consulted and cited in the article. (See [📖 References](#-references).) --- ## 📝 Summary: Precious Onyewuchi argues that **accessibility = consideration**—the habit of anticipating diverse user needs from the start. Drawing on experiences from The Turing Way’s accessibility working group, she reframes accessibility as a **behavioral, social, and technical** practice that benefits everyone, not only people with disabilities. Concrete practices include **alt text**, **keyboard operability**, **subtitles/transcripts**, **equity-focused design** (ramps, wider paths), and choosing **open tools** (GitHub, Zenodo/DOIs) to ensure persistent, low-friction access. The call to action: **be proactive, keep language simple, plan accessibility into policies and processes, and be an ally who speaks up.** --- ## 📖 Main Content: - **Core Thesis:** Accessibility is *consideration-in-action*—designing for real people in real contexts, so participation is equitable and sustained over time ([03:10–04:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=190)). - **Scope Beyond Disability:** Accessibility addresses barriers faced by **many groups** (e.g., left-handed users, people in noisy spaces, low bandwidth, language differences) ([04:22–06:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=262)). - **Open Infrastructure:** Open platforms (GitHub, Zenodo) **lower access cost**, promote reuse, and DOIs make knowledge **durably referenceable** ([06:16–07:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=376)). - **Equity vs. Equality:** Equitable design **meets users where they are**, acknowledges changing abilities across life, and prevents costly retrofits ([07:48–09:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=468)). - **Practice:** Design inclusive spaces/sites, add alt text & captions, use clear language, ship accessible document formats, and **plan a11y from the start** ([10:14–12:29](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=614)). --- ## 🗒️ Notes (Chronological with Timestamp Links) ### ⏱️ [00:02–01:12 — Intro & Setup](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=2) <a id="t-0002"></a> - [00:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=5) Session framed as brief, closing talk; builds on earlier accessibility panel. - [01:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=66) Early tech hiccup used to illustrate **practical accessibility** issues (controls, clarity). ### ⏱️ [01:36–02:12 — Speaker Background](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=96) <a id="t-0136"></a> - [01:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=96) Open source manager, contributor, and educator. - [02:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=124) Origin of talk: **The Turing Way** accessibility group conversation; “accessibility affects everything.” ### ⏱️ [02:00–03:10 — Why This Talk Exists](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=120) <a id="t-0200"></a> - [02:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=155) Societal infrastructure reveals values (youth/elderly/disabled are often **underserved**). - [02:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=179) Key objectives: **what** a11y is, **why** it matters, **how** to practice. ### ⏱️ [03:10–04:14 — Short & Long Definitions of Accessibility](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=190) <a id="t-0310"></a> - [03:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=191) **Short**: Accessibility = **consideration** (design bridges/flows all can use). - [03:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=211) **Long (The Turing Way)**: a set of **community-wide behavioral, social, and technical** decisions welcoming participation despite barriers. - [04:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=240) Focus on **access for everyone**, with special attention to groups facing recurring barriers. ### ⏱️ [04:22–06:12 — Concrete Examples (Alt Text, Keyboard, Infrastructure)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=262) <a id="t-0422"></a> - [04:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=265) **Alt text** improves screen-reader access & documentation quality. - [04:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=288) **Keyboard-accessible** sites support low-vision and motor disabilities. - [05:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=321) **Inclusive infrastructure**: ramps, wider paths, **left-handed-friendly** designs. - [05:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=343) **Subtitles** help language accessibility & noisy environments; useful for everyone. ### ⏱️ [06:16–07:24 — Access Tools: Zenodo, DOI, arXiv, GitHub](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=376) <a id="t-0616"></a> - [06:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=379) Open platforms enable reuse/boilerplates. - [06:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=392) **DOIs** create durable, citable links (avoid link rot). - [06:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=418) arXiv for research preprints; GitHub as collaboration hub. ### ⏱️ [07:48–10:14 — Why Accessibility Matters (Equity, Rights, Longevity)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=468) <a id="t-0748"></a> - [08:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=480) **Equitable participation**, not just formal equality (box/fence analogy). - [08:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=502) Benefits everyone (e.g., subtitles when you can’t use audio). - [08:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=537) Abilities change over time; a11y **future-proofs** products. - [09:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=585) Avoid costly retrofits; inclusive by design builds **sustainable communities**. ### ⏱️ [10:14–12:29 — How To Practice: Design, Content, Communication, Allyship](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=614) <a id="t-1014"></a> - [10:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=618) **Design inclusively**: ramps, wider paths, sensible layouts. - [10:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=659) **Accessible content**: alt text, captions, transcripts, **MD/Google Docs** for low-resource access. - [11:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM&t=686) Use **clear language**; avoid unnecessary complexity. - [11:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N - URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqS_FcyMWsM I'll quickly call on the speaker to talk to us about accessibility and considerations in open source right it's going to be very brief so don't worry about you know taking much of your time um please let's make welcome precious oni as she presents the last session for today's conference [Applause] Hello. Okay. Hi. My name is Precious oni. I am going to be talking on accessibility equals consideration. Uh first of all, I want to give like a huge shout out to the panel that happened here. It was very very nice and it touched on like really cool points that we should generally give consideration to when we're talking about accessibility. So please next slide is me that press it. Okay. Sorry. You see, this is not accessible cuz I don't know what. Okay. Hi, I already said my name. It's Pasha. I work as an open source manager and then I also do open source contribution and I'm an open source educator. I have a podcast but I'll say I'll talk about it later. And I generally like I like conversations because they lead to really important topics. I like traveling if I have money and then I like I like learning and nice. So this talk is as a result of a conversation from the Tinway accessibility group. The Tinway is an open science community. So during one of the meetings le I don't know that's Harry or her but she's the uh accessibility lead for the touring rate community and then during one of the conversations she said that's the thing about accessibility it affects everything it has stuck for a very long time yeah so the origin of this conversation like I've said it's with my friend Zurum who is also very passionate about how badly built societies like you can tell uh a society that doesn't really care about the young the older people or people who have disabilities by the infrastructure that happen that they have right and then at the accessibility work group meeting uh key takeaways is the what is accessibility why is accessibility important and how can we practice accessibility uh the short version of what accessibility is is consideration. Thinking about the other person, how would they use this design? How would they be able to cross this road? If you build a pedestrian bridge, if somebody who is using a wheelchair, can they use the steps that you've create that you've built? That sort of thing. And then the longer version according to the Tinway is um accessibility practices are a set of communitywide behavioral, social and technical decision. This is really long so please bear with me and technical decisions that can be taken to ensure that all are welcome and are able to enter and participate in research datadriven processes communities and events despite any barriers for access. So while accessibility is commonly understood with respect to disability, we meaning the Turingway community define accessibility as giving access to everyone with specific attention given to ensuring proper access for groups of people that encounter different barriers for participation. So the slightly longer version is on the two-way book. You can read it. Um, an example of accessibility would be descriptive all text for images. How many of us follow Ezra or Luby on Twitter? If you click on his images, you can see like very good descriptions of the image that he has posted and that's a really good example. So it helps screen readers and then it improves documentation and it also benefits cited users because I mean everybody uses and likes documentation. Um keyboard accessible websites. It aids visually impaired users and also those with motor disabilities. Uh for example, I think if you use keyboards a lot, some people start to develop like carpal tunnel syndrome and it can be bad if you have like a really small screen, right? So using that it's important to make sure that when you you're building websites, people who use mostly keyboards can make use of them. uh inclusive infrastructure, wheelchair friendly, pedestrian bridges, left-handed friendly book designs. I did not know how much of an issue it was for people who are left-handed to make use of certain tools that we don't really think about until I had a conversation with one of my friend cuz she was crashing out. Right? So, that's an important example. Subtitles for language accessibility and people in noisy areas, right? So like the policy definition was it's not just related to just disabilities accessibilities is broad and I think the I don't remember her name but the second speaker that was one of the speakers I was seeing here Coco Chem Chem Chem and also for people like me that can sometimes be lazy I find that these days most audios you sent most videos I don't listen to the audio especially like if I'm outside I mostly just read what the captions are right uh access tools like Zenodo, we have GitHub where you're looking for maybe an open source project, maybe you want to build something and you don't want to build it from scratch, you can easily just find somebody else who has built something similar to what you're looking for and build a boiler plate from it. Uh, Zenodo allows you to have access to research materials and then it al also helps because if you publish your material on Zenodo, you get a DOI, which is a I forgotten what the D is, but the OI is object identifier. Basically, what it means is if you make changes to your tool, to your material in the future, the same link can still be used in the future. You know, like maybe when you check a website and you see a broken link, that happens probably because the website is no longer accessible or it's been I don't know, maybe maybe the client did not pay the back end developer, so they they removed it. But yeah, if you use a DOI, it makes it's like a sort of like forever type of link that just exists for you. Uh ARXIV, I don't know if it's active, but it's usually for researchers. And then you have solutions like everybody here is gathered for open source, right? So you have open data, open source, open science. These things give us the ability to have access to materials and just generally really cool communities that you know that you would not most likely have met all these people if you did not have a reason to. Oh no, no, no. That's the main part. Why is why is accessibility important? Generally because it is really like that's all the thing you need. But then if you're looking for definitions uh accessibility ensures equitable participation for everyone. I don't like equal because I don't think equal is generally fair. Right? If you I don't know if we've seen this meme I mean meme whatever you pronounce it as where me let's do that where uh people are trying to look over a fence and they have the same exactly and then you have the same length of this but we're not all the same heights. So equitable is reaching people where they are right. So and it also upholds human rights and fairness which is a type of equitability. Uh, it benefits more than just people with disabilities. As for me, I'm not I don't have any disability that I know of, right? But subtitles work for me because like I said, if I'm in a noisy area and you send me a video, I can just know what the content is without listening to it. Uh, it prepares for changing needs over a lifetime. from the panel there was an example that was given where you may not always I know you you can have an accident you can develop capronal syndrome I used to wear glasses three years ago and then now I wear glasses and if I stay outside too long where the light is is going to be bad so yeah it benefit it's um it prepares for changing it over a lifetime it makes products and services easier for people to use a good design is the one that you don't even know that it's there uh it helps organizations comply with legal requirements. This is for like a larger part because now when you have things like the is it WCA that has that enforces that people should make sure that their websites are accessible. If you started from scratch, you will not have to again that panel was very very insightful because I can just easily link to it. But yeah, you not have to now start worrying about building like making changes to the house. You built it from the beginning so it's easy. And then it builds inclusive sustainable communities. People like where they feel heard. People don't like to stay somewhere and they feel excluded. So if you're not being inclusive by design, you're being exclusive subconsciously. How can we practice accessibility? One, you design inclusively, right? I'm not like a designer by profession or anything like that, but design can take many forms. So you can for for infrastructure, we have ramps. Uh, I think this place probably has like a I I don't remember anymore. But yeah, when you're probably planning events or you're doing anything that involves people coming into a building, it's important to factor places that can um cater to people that don't that would not be able to use stairs, right? Create wider pathways, better layouts for for maybe like websites and then easier navigation like this thing that I don't know what to use. uh create accessible content, add all text, captions, transcripts. Something I did not add here was making use of formats that are easy for people to access like MD files. If you're probably working with documents, probably use like a Google Docs because Google has really tried to make most of their materials good for low resource settings. So, making use of things that people that don't have so much access to good internet can't work with is a very important factor. uh use clear communication. The older generation they used to show you that they know book with huge languages. So if you can if something can be simpler, make it simpler. There's really no point making it harder. So yeah, keep language simple. Use accessible formats for documents. Oh yeah, I wrote it here. For example, the MD files. Uh plan accessibility from the start. Build it into policies, processes, and designs. like our star lady said, be proactive, not reactive. And then yes, be an ally. So you may not particularly have a known disability, right? But if you obviously know that people do, so speak up and advocate for accessibility. If you see somebody being mistreated, speak up. If you see somebody being excluded, speak up for them. Even if it's not like affects you directly. if maybe you see that they're planning an event and [Music] anyway, yes, speak up and advocate for accessibility. Thank you so much., Accessibility = Consideration - Precious Onyewuchi, CHAOSS, 01k573n5djypaghtcsj143mj3k.