[BLOG] Add accessibility-whos-responsible

apps/labs/posts/accessibility-whos-responsible.md

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+---
+title: "Accessibility: Who's Responsible?"
+published: March 25, 2021
+author: isabela-presedo-floyd
+description: "For the past few months, I've been part of a group of people in the JupyterLab community who've committed to start chipping away at the many accessibility failings of JupyterLab. I find this work is critical, fascinating, and a learning experience for everyone involved. So I'm going to document my personal experience and lessons I've learned in a series of blog posts. Welcome!"
+category: [Access-centered, OSS Experience]
+featuredImage:
+  src: /posts/accessibility-whos-responsible/jlabaccess1.png
+  alt: 'Fingers and question marks pointing in every direction'
+hero:
+  imageSrc: /posts/accessibility-whos-responsible/jlabaccess1.png
+  imageAlt: 'Fingers and question marks pointing in every direction'
+---
+
+## JupyterLab Accessibility Journey Part 1
+
+For the past few months, I've been part of a group of people in the JupyterLab community 
+who've committed to start chipping away at the many accessibility failings of JupyterLab. 
+I find this work is critical, fascinating, and a learning experience for everyone involved. 
+So I'm going to document my personal experience and lessons I've learned in a series of blog 
+posts. Welcome!
+
+Because this is the first of a series, I want to make sure we start with a good foundation. 
+Let me answer some questions you might be having.
+
+**Q:** Who are you?
+**A:** I'm Isabela, a UX/UI designer at [Quansight Labs](https://labs.quansight.org/), who 
+cares about accessibility and is fortunate to work somewhere where that is a respected concern. 
+I also spend time in the Jupyter ecosystem—especially around JupyterLab —though that is not the 
+only open-source community you can find me in. I like to collect gargoyles, my hair is pink, 
+and I love the sunflower emoji :sunflower:. It's nice to meet you!
+
+**Q:** What is the Jupyter ecosystem and JupyterLab?
+**A:** [Project Jupyter](https://jupyter.org/) is an organization that produces open-source software 
+and open standards. The Jupyter ecosystem is a term used to describe projects that are directly a 
+part of or support Project Jupyter. JupyterLab is one of its primary projects and a staple for 
+the day-to-day work of many students, professionals, researchers, and more.
+
+**Q:** What is accessibility?
+**A:** Accessibility is a term used to describe the practice of creating things in a way that 
+makes them usable for people with disabilities.  I’m going to be talking mostly about web accessibility 
+since JupyterLab is a web app. If you're asking why you should care about accessibility, please 
+take a moment to read [why it matters](https://www.w3.org/WAI/fundamentals/accessibility-intro/#context) 
+(hint: there are ethical, legal, and business reasons to care). Inaccessible experiences can 
+have consequences, from people not being able to get information they need to being unable to 
+pursue whole careers that rigidly require the use of inaccessible software (such as JupyterLab).
+
+**Q:** Who is responsible for making things accessible?
+**A:** I'm so glad you asked! Let's dive into that...
+
+### How did we get here?
+
+The Jupyter ecosystem is full of people who care about accessibility. I know this because I've heard 
+people ask about accessibility in community meetings. I know this because I've read discussions about 
+accessibility on Github issues and PRs. I know this because the project has a
+[repository](https://github.com/jupyter/accessibility/) devoted to organizing community accessibility 
+efforts. If this is the case, then why hasn't JupyterLab already been made more accessible in the past 
+three years it's been deemed "[ready for users](https://blog.jupyter.org/jupyterlab-is-ready-for-users-5a6f039b8906)?" 
+(I'm intentionally not mentioning other Jupyter projects to limit this post's scope.)
+
+Because for every time accessibility is brought up, I've also experienced a hesitance around taking 
+action. Even though I’ve never heard it explicitly said, the way I’ve seen these efforts get lost time and 
+time again has come to mean this in my head: “accessibility is someone else’s problem.” But it can’t always 
+be someone else’s problem; at some point there is a person taking ownership of the work.
+
+So who is responsible for making something accessible? Probably not the users, though feedback can be a 
+helpful step in making change. Certainly not the people that already can’t use the tool because it isn’t 
+accessible. But I, personally, think anyone who is part of making that tool is responsible for building and 
+maintaining its accessibility. Just as any user experience encompasses the whole of a product, an 
+accessible experience does the same. This should be a consideration from within the product, to its 
+support/documentation, to any other interaction. A comprehensive team who thinks to ask questions like, 
+“how would I use this if I could only use my keyboard?” or “would I be able to get the same information if 
+I were colorblind?” are starting to hold themselves and their team accountable. Taking responsibility is 
+key to starting and sustaining change.
+
+### Misconceptions
+
+Here are a few common concerns I’ve heard when people tell me why they can’t or haven’t worked on 
+accessibility. I’m going to paraphrase some replies I've heard when asking about accessibility in many 
+different environments (not only JupyterLab) over the years.
+
+**I don’t know anything!**
+And that’s fine. You don’t have to be an expert! Fortunately, there are already a lot of resources out 
+on the wide open internet, some even focused on beginners (some of my personal favorites are at 
+[The A11y Project](https://www.a11yproject.com/resources) and
+[MDN](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Accessibility/What_is_accessibility)). Of course, 
+it’s important to remember that learning will mean that you are likely to make mistakes and need to keep 
+iterating. This isn’t a one-and-done deal. If you do have access to an expert, spending time to build 
+a foundation means they can help you tackle greater obstacles instead of just giving you the basics.
+
+**I don’t have time for another project!**
+Accessibility doesn’t have to be your only focus. JupyterLab sure isn’t the only project I am working on, 
+and it won’t be in the near future. Any progress is better than no progress, and several people doing even 
+a little work can add up faster than you might think. Besides, there’s a good chance you won’t even have 
+to go out of your way to start improving accessibility. Start by asking questions about a project you are 
+already working on. Is there a recommended way to design and build a component? Is information represented 
+in more than one way? Is everything labeled?  It’s good practice and more sustainable to consider 
+accessibility as a regular part of your process instead of a special side project.
+
+**It’s not a good use of my energy to work on something that only affects a few people!**
+It’s not just a few people. Read what [WHO](https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/disability-and-health) 
+and the [CDC](https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/infographic-disability-impacts-all.html) have 
+to say about the number of people with disabilities.
+
+**I don’t want to make abled people’s experience different than it already is!**
+Depending on what you are doing, the changes might not be active or noticeable unless assistive technologies 
+or accessibility features are being actively used. And in many cases, accessibility features improve the 
+experience for all users and not just those they were designed for (sometimes called the [curb cut effect](https://uxdesign.cc/the-curb-cut-effect-universal-design-b4e3d7da73f5)). Even if you aren’t convinced, I’d encourage you to ask yourself why creating the user 
+experience you want and making that experience accessible are mutually exclusive. What are people missing 
+out on if they can’t use your product? What are you missing out on if they can’t use your product?
+
+### What could responsibility be like?
+With JupyterLab, it was just a matter of a few people who were willing to say they were tired of waiting and able 
+to spend time both learning what needed to be done as well as doing it. Speaking for myself, I did not come in as 
+an expert or with undivided obligations or even someone with all the skills to make changes that are needed. I 
+think this is important to note because it seems to me that it could have just as easily been other members of 
+the community in my position given similar circumstances.
+
+Our first step in taking responsibility was setting up a regular time to meet so we could check-in and help 
+one another. Then we set reasonable goals and scoped the work: we decided to focus on JupyterLab rather 
+than multiple projects at once, address [WCAG 2.1 standards](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/) in parts of JupyterLab we were already 
+working on, and follow up on past work that other community members began. This is just the beginning, 
+but I hope it was a helpful peek into the process we are trying out.
+
+### But wait, there's more!
+Deciding to make accessibility a priority in Jupyter spaces isn't where this work ends. Join me for the next post in this series 
+where I'll talk about my not-so-subtle panic at the amount of problems to be solved, how to move forwards in spite of panic, and 
+the four experience types in JupyterLab that we must address to be truly accessible.
+___
+
+*This is part of a series of blogs around making JupyterLab more accessible. You can read the 
+[whole series here](/categories/jlaba11y).*
+
+*Interested in getting involved? Join our community via the JupyterLab accessibility meetings 
+listed every other week on the [Jupyter community calendar](https://jupyter.readthedocs.io/en/latest/community/content-community.html#jupyter-community-meetings).*