5 Places to get started with Web Accessibility
Tags: a11y, webdev, discuss, gaad
Published: 2022-05-19 12:48:19

Today is [Global Accessibility Awareness Day](https://accessibility.day/) - a great day to start dipping your toes into the (unknown) waters of web accessibility, learning about new tools and practices and maybe sharing your ideas with your favourite colleague. No matter whether you are an accessibility expert or a complete newbie, today is a great opportunity to join the discussion and try something new. So to celebrate and get the ball rolling (and because (new) things can be overwhelming), we thought we’d share some of our favourite resources.

_What are your favourite resources? Where do you turn to learn more about Web Accessibility? We’d love to hear from you, simply let us know in the comments!_

[**The A11y Project**](https://www.a11yproject.com/ )
The a11y project is a community-driven open-source project that aims to help people get into web accessibility, understand the underlying principles and promote a more inclusive web for all. They are also aspiring to be a living example of beautiful, creative digital experiences. There are lots of resources and blog posts to get the ball rolling. 

**[Deque University](https://dequeuniversity.com/)**
The folks at Deque are offering professional training and lots of great resources about web accessibility, for example, [screen reader keyboard shortcuts (https://dequeuniversity.com/screenreaders/). They are also offering scholarships to people with disabilities to use all their training resources for free. 

**[Molly Burke](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwf9TcLyS5KDoLRLjke41Hg 
)**
Not strictly coding related, but very informative and entertaining: Molly Burke’s Youtube Channel takes you into the
life of a blind person, shows you what it’s like to try and for example shop online for shoes, educates about braille and disability in general and [what you can do to make the world a little more accessible](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjUJRi1Gfs8&list=PL_Xm8PicNxr07jQawtnp6pOYfAk_3jg5m&index=3).

[**Manuel Matuzovic** ](https://twitter.com/mmatuzo)
Go follow Manuel on Twitter - he did not only create [HTML Hell](https://www.htmhell.dev/) (a collection of truly gruesome code), but also frequently advocates for accessibility best practices, gives amazing talks like this one about [translating (semantic) design into accessible layouts](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wno1IhEBTxc). 

**[WCAG](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/)**
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (ok this is a mouth full) are the accessibility rule book if you will. Here, the requirements to comply with the different levels of accessibility are listed in detail. Yes, this is technical and might be a bit difficult to read - but it’s a great page to bookmark and go back to, reference and use as a base for further investigation. The WCAG is explained beautifully in Chris Bongers post [What’s WCAG](https://dev.to/dailydevtips1/a11y-101-whats-wcag-l1c) and a simplified version of this document can be found in the [Simple Web Accessibility Guidelines](https://jfhector.github.io/accessibility-guidelines/index.html). 

These are our top 5 - places to find food for thought, learn and return to when in doubt. Where do you go for resources on accessibility? Do you have a favourite page, podcast or Youtube channel? Let us know :) 

Big shoutout to [Thomas](https://twitter.com/thomas_sweet), who made sure the GAAD is on Storyblok agenda and shared his favourite resources 🎉