Accessibility — Overview
Note: This is a living note, an auto generated page synthesized by my self updating second brain managed by Claude. While it's input was my actual organic writing, this is an AI summary/extraction/synthesis part of my The Living Notes section.
If you prefer to read my organically written words or work, please go to any of the other nav links besides living-note or a page, route, or tag without #living-note.
Accessibility — Overview
My Position
Accessibility is not a compliance checklist — it's a human right and an engineering discipline. I approach it as both, fluent in the business case and the moral imperative.
My edge: autistic lived experience + production engineering depth. I find barriers that tools miss. I fix them in code, not just report them.
Core Framework
The 97% gap: ~97% of the web has measurable accessibility issues. The problem isn't lack of awareness — it's lack of scalable, systematic solutions. Scale requires:
- Automation (but automation alone misses ~30% of issues)
- Embedded expertise (engineers who understand accessibility as a non-functional requirement)
- Culture shift (leadership buy-in, incentive alignment)
Non-functional requirement model: Treat accessibility like security — not an afterthought, not optional, built into every sprint from the start.
Competency over dependency: Don't become the single person everyone pings. Train the team. Build the systems. Leave competency behind.
Key Domain Areas
| Area | Notes |
|---|---|
| wcag | WCAG standards, what they miss, how to apply |
| enterprise | Accessibility at organizational scale |
| ai-a11y | AI-assisted accessibility testing and remediation |
| tools | Accessibility testing tools (axe, Lighthouse, NVDA, etc.) |
| education | Teaching engineers; skilling up teams |
The Business Case
- Legal exposure: ADA lawsuits trending up
- Market expansion: ~26% of US adults have a disability (28.7% per CDC, ~60–70M people)
- Performance: accessible sites tend to be faster, cleaner
- SEO: Google's algorithm now ranks accessible websites higher; 71% of disabled users leave inaccessible sites
- Customer loyalty: 66% of consumers pay more for socially impactful companies; exclusionary experiences lose multi-generational LTV
- Gap Inc. example: strategy projected at $300M–600M annual revenue uplift — derived from $5.7B e-commerce base × 5–10% WCAG conversion uplift. Full document:
- Legal risk at Gap specifically: at least 9 lawsuits in 5+ years against Gap Inc. and subsidiaries
ADA Accommodation as Assistive Tech Distribution
The companion healthcare provider template letter (April 2026) completes the two-document strategy: the provider letter creates the legal obligation (documenting disability, functional limitations, and specific accommodation); the whitepaper removes the technical excuse. The letter also frames SIGNAL as a technological job coach — connecting to established legal precedent (EEOC v. Party City, 2018) for in-person job coaches as reasonable accommodation. This makes providers a distribution channel: every clinician treating autistic adults becomes a potential SIGNAL referral source.
The VPAT / Accessibility Conformance Report is now complete (April 6, 2026). SIGNAL v1.0 conforms to WCAG 2.1 Level AA (with one partial support: 4.1.3 Status Messages, fix in v1.1), Section 508, and EN 301 549. Tested with axe, WAVE, Lighthouse, pa11y, NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver, and 12 disabled user testers. This completes the four-pillar strategy: job coach positioning, assistive tech framing, security whitepaper, and VPAT — now enabling GSA Schedule, state/local government, and enterprise vendor qualification procurement.
Social Communication as Accessibility Gap
WCAG vs. Reality
WCAG covers what can be standardized. Real-world neurodivergent experience reveals gaps:
- Cognitive load not fully addressed
- Social context and language complexity under-specified
- Dynamic interface patterns (SPAs, infinite scroll) not well covered
- Automated tools miss ~30–40% of real issues
- Social disability as a cross-cutting functional limitation — not a diagnostic category, but a common outcome of autism, alexithymia, ADHD, TBI, and age-related decline (raised this in COGA community review)
See wcag for detailed notes.
AI and Accessibility
Growing intersection. LLMs can:
- Generate alt text at scale
- Identify ARIA pattern violations
- Assist with plain language rewrites
- Power assistive interfaces
But: AI-generated accessibility can also create new barriers (hallucinated alt text, over-confident remediation). Need human review.
See ai-a11y for detail.
Key External Resources
- Deque / axe — leading testing toolchain; good for what it catches
- Level Access — consultancy; strong on enterprise strategy
- W3C WAI — standards body; COGA task force relevant for cognitive. I'm actively participating in COGA community meetings (as of 2026-03/04) — contributed social disability concept, late diagnosis advocacy, functional needs framing feedback.
- AudioEye — tool + services; interesting overlap/competition for consulting
- Sheri Byrne-Haber — accessibility strategist; worth following
- CSUN — annual conference; primary professional community