Overview
When development teams at government agencies, educational institutions, and businesses worldwide want to create quality, accessible applications, they must implement good accessibility design, development, and testing practices in all phases of the development life-cycle. There are many coding and design guidelines a team can follow. But, there is more involved than just conforming to guidelines or evaluating the evolving product using a suite of tools. To develop a truly accessible product, the team must perform activities throughout the development life cycle to help ensure it is usable, meets both business and user needs, and has a high level of quality.
IBM has integrated accessibility best practices into its product development process and has found success in constructing accessible applications. Olive Au and Bill Curtis-Davidson know a bit about IBM's practices and processes and have collaborated on a paper: "Designing & Developing for Accessibility throughout the Life Cycle" that details their experiences in helping clients incorporate accessibility features across a product development life-cycle and in the company culture as well.
Olive is an accessibility specialist with IBM Interactive :: Toronto's Accessibility Practice which offers worldwide government, university and private-sector clients expertise in accessibility roadmaps, assessments, remediation, development, testing and training. The Accessibility Practice has membership on the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability Information and Communications Standards Committee, and familiarity with legislation nationally and internationally providing accessibility services across industries and technologies.
Bill is a Business Development and Solution Leader in the IBM Worldwide Human Ability & Accessibility Center, responsible for integrating IBM accessibility services and technologies into mainstream IBM solutions. An expert in U.S. Section 508 Standards, Bill is a seasoned consultant who leverages over 10 years of experience to help clients develop innovative solutions that comply with applicable ICT accessibility standards and which are broadly usable. Previously, he served as an Information & UI Architect in IBM Global Business Services, where he led UI architecture, design and development with dozens of clients.