Perth Accessibility Meetup Group

We’re a friendly bunch of web professionals, students and academics who take an interest in making sure everyone can use the web.

We meet once a month for breakfast and host a few events during the year where you can learn more about digital inclusion. If you’ve got something you’d like to learn or share, we’d love you to come along to the next event! Check out our Meetup page to see when we’ll be gathering next.

Find us on Meetup.com

#a11y

'a11y' is an abbreviation for the word 'accessibility'. It's used a lot online, especially on Twitter where you are limited to 280 characters per message. It came about because there are 11 letters in between the inital a and final y of the word 'accessibility'.

What is accessibility?

Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use and contribute to the web. At the moment, many Web sites are difficult or impossible to use for the 20% of Australians with disabilities.

A key principle of the web is that we can design it to be flexible to meet different user needs, preferences, and situations. This flexibility also benefits people without disabilities in certain situations, e.g.

  • people using a slow Internet connection,
  • people with "temporary disabilities" like a broken arm,
  • people with changing abilities due to aging.

The web is increasingly important for many aspects of life: education, employment, government, commerce, health care and recreation. It must be accessible so people with disabilities can have equal access and opportunity. An accessible Web can also help people with disabilities by reducing the barriers to print, audio, and visual media. Building accessible websites makes it possible for people with disabilities take a more active role in society.