New Roles for Accessible Web Publishing

Despite our best intentions and attempts to train Web developers and designers in accessible Web publishing, progress in making the Web accessible has been disappointing, at best.
While it's important to increase awareness of the barriers to access we unintentionally build, institutions cannot guarantee the accessibility of their Web presence through the collective effort of individuals. Institutions generally meet technical challenges with responses at the organization, or process, level. That's what I propose here.

It's clear that the solution to Web accessibility must change. We also need to acknowledge that the problem itself has changed. Publishing systems are replacing hand-built static sites, so, the focus of accessibility is changing from the page to content. Digital media shares - even dominates - the content well with text, increasing the burden of creating alternate content for video, audio, dynamic content and data visualization. The standards themselves have changed; even so the way those standards are applied to testing methodologies. Don't look for handy checklists in WCAG2; the new standard supports expert review and best practices, but does little to support simple automated testing (to the loud protests of the Web community).

If the nature of the Web is changing so quickly, and accessibility standards have become more complex, how can educational institutions meet their legal obligation to make their sites accessible? Training for Web workers in modern techniques of accessibility is necessary, but we've already found it to be far from sufficient. The guidelines and tools of WCAG1 no longer suffice. What's needed is a process that fits the operations of Web shops within the institution. Web publishing workflow needs two roles: 1) quality control acting as the final step in the publishing process, and 2) the technical expert. Quality control checks content against best practices, users, and devices. Remedial action and training goes to the technical expert who either has the answer or knows how to get it. Note that I say roles. The roles can be filled by one or more people. Quality control and expertise can be the responsibility of one person, or not. They can be designers, developers, media producers, writers, or editors. A role can be a new position, or more likely just new responsibilities. The best qualification for the role is a passion for user satisfaction.

This solution may not apply to the multitude of one-person Web shops. If that's you, I feel your pain acutely, as I used to be a shop of one. If you are a hero, you have two new roles to fill, and bless you for your effort! Or you and your Web community, or your college/unit staff, can organize a collaborative process. What must not happen is a strategy that relies on an ad-hoc, reactive approach to accommodation requests. That's a train wreck.