Bootcamps don't teach you this...
Tags: a11y, webdev, programming, beginners
Published: 2023-11-20 12:21:34

I am not going to "beat around the bush", I am talking about accessibility.

Simple question, do you **really** know:
- semantic HTML?
- what WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) are?
- how to use WAI-ARIA (Web Accessibility Initiative - Accessible Rich Internet Applications Suite) attributes and roles?

If you answered "no" to any of the above questions, then I am here with a very simple offer:

**Join "The A11y Monsters" and learn accessibility for free.**

[![Join the discord, links to BecomeA.Monster. Poster description, text: "Want to learn accessibility? Join us at BecomeA.Monster". Dark purple background with a neon pink cartoon spikey creature with large round eyes and smile with pointy teeth. "Meet Sa11y" is next to the creature.](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/2btgdqargg9hlopz6kf3.png)](http://becomea.monster)

**Join here:** [The a11y monsters on Discord](https://discord.gg/K3Pp8smMMr)

We would love to have you!

## What will we being doing?
A semi-structured course on accessibility, where we learn about WCAG, ATAG (Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines), WAI-ARIA and other strange acronyms related to accessibility.

But we will also cover how to get accessibility buy-in, auditing, accessibility-first development, the benefits to you as a developer, how this skill will become more important with the inclusion of AI / ML (Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning) in the development process and more!

It is mixed learning, where we use a combination of tutorial, presentations and, most importantly, practical application (we will build cool stuff!) to explore the interesting, exciting and important world of accessibility.

**You can expect:**

### Live streams
We will be having bi-weekly live streams (over on Twitch or YouTube) where we will build components, applications and websites and cover accessibility considerations along the way. 

These will be recorded so you can watch them later, but if you can make it to the live event then it is much easier to learn as you can ask questions etc.

### Exercises
Each week there will be a short exercise where we introduce a concept around accessibility and then provide a short challenge to practice your new skills!

### Community round tables
A weekly "office hours" on the server where we will review your sites, and those of others, and pick up accessibility errors through audits.

### Open Source contributions
This community has a strong focus on practical learning. 

Each week we will audit projects for accessibility errors (and you will learn how to audit them yourself!) and then we will create a load of issues so you can get those green squares by applying what you have learned!

### Projects to get involved in
WCAG 101 is a project I am working on with Todd Libby. 

But it will also be OSS. As you learn accessibility there will be loads of opportunities to contribute code examples, snippets, explanations and more to this resource.

There are also some tools I personally plan on building to help with accessibility work and obviously, they will welcome contributions from the community too!

## Come join us!
Just in case you missed the link, you can join [The A11y Monsters Discord here](https://discord.gg/K3Pp8smMMr)

Let me wrap up by saying: A warm welcome, in advance, to my fellow accessibility monsters, let's go remove some barriers and build a better web, together! 💪🏼 

## Could you do my a favour?
If you work at a company where you know the accessibility needs improving (or never enters into the conversation at all), could you **share this article with your colleagues** and get them to join the community. 

We want to make the world more inclusive, one line of code at a time. 💗