WCAG as a tree, shoot with early roots

 The fully grown WCAG tree and the seedlings to grow digital accessibility.

Think of an adult tree with several established branches, think of that being how you map the fully grown WCAG for web developers. Each main branch being POUR and the smaller branches being the WCAG criteria, The roots of WCAG come from a long history of research, testing and understanding of human computer interaction needs. WCAG is the full standard, the fully grown tree, now used in law to define web accessibility used by web developers and designers to make websites accessible. 

A important thing to note is that the tree also needs nature to stay alive and grow, sunshine and water also play a vital role. Think of the water and sunlight as your real-life manual user feedback and testing to complete the cycle of WCAG. Just like a tree cannot survive without its water and sunlight, accessibility needs real-life user testing to make sure it’s healthy, it doesn’t just grow because we’ve checked with automated tools that the branches exist.

Image of a WCAG tree#

Much of the education around digital accessibility focuses on teaching about the details of the tree and all the branches, and this is of course absolutely vital for web and software developers, but we do not necessarily teach the basics about how the tree grows from seed and the importance of nurturing its early roots. 

Let’s shift our thinking back to that of the newly planted seed, it needs the basics of sunlight and water to get established and the basics of its roots to underpin it. These roots are the very foundations of digital accessibility, those smaller elements that need to be in place for digital content to be accessible as the most basic of levels. Think of this as those basic parts that make the difference between being a human barrier to access or not, like the water and sunlight of understanding peoples basic needs to develop early roots of nature and the fundamentals of what accessibility is about. Think of this as a document without the basics of headings, alt text or descriptive links, without these being added someone can’t use them, and if it was a seed without these roots it couldn’t function or grow.

Think of the full WCAG tree as established and detailed knowledge for professionals in the digital discipline, and then think of the tiny rooting seed as the baseline awareness that everyone could grasp, the basics of life. To some these basics and seeds of accessibility are the very things that help with everyday life, and if we all knew and could apply the basics we could grow more plants and trees, great the for the environment right? We all know that if something is good for the environment it benefits everyone, it’s the same with digital accessibility, even the basics benefit all of us.

So let’s look at these seeds and their roots, think of this as the very basic awareness level of digital accessibility, we can all plant a seed and water it on our windowsill, it doesn’t need to start out as a tree and we don’t need to be gardeners. Remember as a child planting cress seeds, it didn’t mean we were training to be a gardener but we did learn that you can grow a plant easily with sunlight and water.

Now imagine if we taught the basics of awareness about digital accessibility to everyone, and just like growing cress we taught young people to nurture some basic principles of inclusion in our digital world. So just like adding sunlight and water breathes life into plants, digital accessibility enables society grow in an inclusive way.

We have training and formal standards for our WCAG trees, but no baseline or formal awareness education or standards for sowing and watering the seeds. This needs to change. 

I have been researching and working on what this type of education could look like at a more foundational level in schools, and have been lucky enough to be able to start piloting this. Young people have the power to make such a difference in the future, and with the right knowledge to sew the seeds for inclusion we could nurture an inclusive digital world. Consider the difference to the environment if more people grew plants, then consider the barriers broken down if all of the everyday content produced could be developed inclusively just because everyone had learnt about the basics of digital accessibility awareness at school.

Consider this idea in terms of the social model of disability, so far we only have a small population of technical specialists who know how to build accessible websites and prevent barriers, but websites only scratch the surface to address the sheer scale and range of everyday digital content being produced. But just imagine a whole society of everyday content creators knowing how to prevent some of the most basic barriers in digital content and this is learned from the offset of establishing digital practices, that’s what education at scale in schools could do.

The famous proverb great oaks from little acorns grow puts forward the idea that if you persist with small efforts they may build to grander ones in time. By sowing the seeds of basic digital accessibility awareness early into the curriculum or mindset of every young person, our next generation could grow up with lifelong skills to be able to think digital, think everyone.

Just imagine at schools everyone was taught the basic roots and foundations of digital accessibility awareness to become an inclusive citizen in our digital world. My literature review and initial research in this area suggests this doesn’t just sit in the digital skill set but would need to be a multidisciplinary approach that includes the core roots of understanding the social model of disability in society, the importance of identifying and preventing barriers, and learning some basic digital skills principles of inclusive practice to put into everyday action. 

Just like WCAG is for web developers to ensure websites are fully accessible, this is the underpinning knowledge for everyone else in society to be able to put the roots and basics of digital accessibility in place.

Image of an acorn with 14 roots of foundational knowledge. (The ‘Learn to Enable Digital for Everyone’ framework).

Social model of disability 

Identifying and preventing barriers 

Sowing the basic seeds to ‘think digital, think everyone’

Establishing the roots to ‘think digital, think everyone’

2,3,4,5

To fit in the circle 2,3,4,3,2

A seed can’t grow and develop unless we nurture and establish its roots.

The WCAG tree and the enabling roots.

Get a quote from Roger Firman UKAAF and NEW college and others. 

I’m looking forward to exploring aspects of this framework further in my PHD aspiration journey.