I had the incredible opportunity to speak at Grace Hopper 2023 with my co-presenters Bianca Guerrero and Sarah Higley. Words cannot express how much fun it was collaborating together to create our talk "Accessibility 101: Intro into Accessible Web Development" and learning from each other on our different expertise on accessibility. I'm so glad we were able to share a brief intro into creating accessible experiences and inspire other women and non-binary technologist on how to create more accessible and inclusive experiences for everyone.

I've also been inspired by many of the amazing conversations and discussions I've had with other technologists and members of AnitaB.org. I was especially inspired by Tiffany A. Yu, MSc and the work her company Divisibility is doing in the intersection of accessibility and diversity.

Talk abstract:

Do you want to build accessible websites but you’re not sure how to get started or where to go? Have you built dynamic, beautiful webpages only to find them inaccessible? Are you feeling frustrated by the whole endeavor? Creating accessible and inclusive websites are important and it’s never been a better time to start, but like many it’s hard to get started. Which creates a lot of unnecessary frustration, trust us we’ve been there! Sarah Higley, Bianca Guerrero, and Catherine Johnson hope to ease this frustration and give you the tools you need to create accessible websites.

In this session we will spend 60 minutes learning and fixing the most common accessibility bugs that impact user experiences. We will learn about what accessibility is and why it matters. Then we will dive into common web accessibility issues; how to fix them and how to spot them in websites going forward. While we can’t cover very thing about accessibility, we hope by the end of this session you will feel confident creating accessibility compliant websites and have the tools to continue exploring!

Grace Hopper 2023