The real reason you'll never find a Paint By Numbers in the National Art Gallery

Performing Accessibility by Checklist is a bit like trying to create a masterpiece with a paint-by-numbers kit. You might get a reasonable idea of how things look, but in the end it's just not quite right. That isn't to say we shouldn't refer to WCAG 2, it's an important set of design guidelines that helps us reach a diverse audience.

Where the guidelines can really make an impact though, is by integrating compliance testing with user research. When used to initiate rather than complete a project, compliance testing is an invaluable, iterative tool for not only identifying possible accessibility issues, but also for guiding subsequent stages of user centred research and design with a diverse audience; that is, one that includes people with disabilities as well as those without.

In this presentation I will demonstrate this methodology with examples of recent projects, where the focus has been on achieving WCAG compliance with a user centred approach.