Mar 31, 2021

Internal tools, sites, and accessibility

By Duncan Mackenzie • Issue #4 • View online

One reoccurring problem I see within companies is how internal tools are handled. Often, they aren’t treated like production systems, when in fact, they are.

This means they should be given the same level of attention around planning, security, accessibility, documentation and more.

If a system is being used to do work, then it is a production system and should be managed as such.

There's no such thing as a website or web app that doesn't need to be accessible

This article from Chris Ferdinandi digs into exactly the point I raised above. If you are building an app or site for your employees, it needs to be accessible, just like everything you build. Accessibility is about making systems available to everyone, and that is true whether they work at your company or if they are one of your customers.

gomakethings.com • Share

Maddie @ 🏠

@Maggysche

Making a web-application accessible is not a matter of cost and should not be discussed with customers.

If you say, you're doing a good job and you're not doing the bare minimum for accessibility, you're a bad web dev.

There, I said it

4:30 AM - 29 Mar 2021

Supporting and managing "Citizen Development"

Not strictly about internal tools, but I discuss the idea of ‘tools developed outside of the engineering org’ and the need to still set guidelines around them.

www.duncanmackenzie.net • Share

The web performance of internal systems is important, so optimise them too

Performance is about making an enjoyable, high-quality experience for your users, and it’s an aspect of accessibility as well. Internal systems are no exception and Matt Hobbs explains in this article how to test and improve your internal web experiences.

nooshu.github.io • Share

More on Accessibility

Legibility in User Interfaces

While we are on the topic of accessibility and business tools, I found this article from Nitish Khagwal to be a great resource for understanding what factors impact text legibility and how to improve it.

uxplanet.org • Share

The Mobile Performance Inequality Gap

Slow, heavy and JavaScript heavy pages create an accessibility and inclusion issue, especially if you consider the experience of different users depending on the device they can afford and where they live. This article by Alex Russell should make you immediately go out and test your experiences on a ‘regular’ user’s device over a 4G or slower connection… and then start improving things.

infrequently.org • Share

Stark’s Public Library of Accessibility Resources

Tons of public and free guides around accessibility, worth a read before you start accessing your internal tools!

www.getstark.co • Share

Did you enjoy this issue?

By Duncan Mackenzie

In each newsletter, I'll share a set of links related to web development and software engineering. As the editor, my opinions are going to influence the topics and tone of this material, so expect to see lots of information on web performance and general topics around working in a software engineering team! Check it out and let me know what you think at https://twitter.com/duncanma

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