Build and make
Digital accessibility engineer
Making software genuinely usable by people who navigate it by voice, keyboard, screen reader or with a shaking hand.
Written by Nivaan, founder of OffLadder · Last reviewed
Test it this week
Unplug your mouse and try to complete one task on your own bank or council website using only the keyboard. Write down every place you got stuck.
What the work actually contains
- Working through a product with a screen reader and a keyboard only, listing what is impossible rather than what is untidy
- Fixing the markup and interaction patterns, not just the colour contrast
- Testing with people who actually use assistive technology
- Teaching a team the three habits that prevent most of it recurring
A realistic day
- Testing a page with only a keyboard and a screen reader
- Logging each barrier with the exact guideline it breaks and how to fix it
- Pairing with a developer to fix the most serious issues first
- Reviewing a new design before it is built
Tools you would use
- Screen readers such as NVDA or VoiceOver
- Browser accessibility checkers
- The WCAG guidelines
- Issue trackers
The unglamorous parts
- Automated checkers miss most real problems, so testing is slow
- You often arrive after something is already built
- Explaining why it matters, again, to a new team
Why it is appearing now
Accessibility duties are being enforced more widely, and interfaces have got more dynamic and harder to navigate non-visually.
What AI changes about it
Automated checks find perhaps a third of real problems. The rest need someone who has sat with a person trying and failing to complete a task.
What AI does, and what stays human
AI tends to do
- Catches common issues like missing labels
- Drafts image descriptions for review
- Suggests code fixes
Stays with a person
- Judging whether something is actually usable
- Testing with disabled people
- Deciding what to fix first
The human abilities it leans on
- Empathy that turns into specific technical changes
- Patience with slow, careful testing
- Advocacy inside a team that has other priorities
What it can grow out of
- Front-end development and QA
- Support work and care work
- Anyone who uses assistive technology themselves
What nobody knows yet
How much of the checking becomes a standard part of build tooling.
Try it now: a 20-minute test
- Open a website you use often and put your mouse away.
- Try to complete one task, such as a search or a sign-up, using only Tab, Enter and the arrow keys.
- Write down each place you got stuck and what you think should happen instead.
Afterwards, notice whether
- You found at least two places you got stuck
- You could describe what should happen instead
- You wanted to find out why each one broke
Sources you can check
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 · W3C
- Web developers (nearest established occupation) · O*NET OnLine, US Department of Labor
Guides worth reading