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I'm reading Steve Krug's book Don't Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability and there are a few good sources that he points to that will help designers design more accessible interfaces. Here are some of the ones from the book.

What else is out there? For software? For physical interfaces?

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  • I think every book about designing and UI, has a chapter on Accessibility.
    – Morteza Milani
    Commented Aug 11, 2010 at 21:33
  • It would be great to see some dedicated resources or references.
    – milesmeow
    Commented Aug 11, 2010 at 22:35

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Your own experience can be a great resource. I recommend an EMPATHY ATTACK!

Try using a screen reader (or any other accessibility software/device) on your site.

Great list here from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_screen_readers

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    EMPATHY ATTACK! I like that. :)
    – Rahul
    Commented Aug 18, 2010 at 12:13
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NNGroup Report on accessibility

NNGroup Accessibility Testing Guidelines

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Only allowed one link as a new signup, so will just say there's also an updated edition of Constructing Accessible Websites, Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance

Edited to add:

My review of the above book - might help you with deciding if it's right for you. Dive into Accessibility - a great web course on web accessibility techniques and who they benefit. Accessify - tools, news and resources for accessibility RNIB Access Centre - RNIB access centre, useful for sight-loss specific info. WAI ARIA - if you're doing web AJAXy stuff, ARIA is something you should know about for helping with accessibility (see also Code Talks. Paciello Group - resources, plugins and whitepapers from a respected accessibility consultancy

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If you're in the US, working on a US government site, or for a product that depends on a web application for any kind of authentication/access that you hope to market to the government, then understanding how WCAG 2.0 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) map to the existing Section 508 of the ADA (American Disabilities Act) is important. Not just running a validator or going through a check list.

There are several sites that explain how they relate, Mapping 508 to WCAG 2.0 will get you lots of results from Google (I'd list them but can only post 1 link)

Once you understand what's required, it should be consider in every UI design since it covers things like semantics, color-contrast, Keyboard users/Assistive technology users, and so forth.

Another part is working with the content people to make sure that the content is designed/written with semantics/accessibility/usability in mind. Content Strategy is something I'd recommend reading up on and a good starting point is http://thecontentwrangler.com/2010/05/24/why-you-should-adopt-an-accessible-content-strategy/ There are several more out there.

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  • Content strategy would be a good foundation to start with, but mostly it's about understanding of the Web platform/format throughout the team. If your client doesn't understand why accessibility is important, you're doomed.
    – Rahul
    Commented Aug 18, 2010 at 12:14
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The Dutch government (famously) introduced "accessibility guidelines" that are now enforced across all government websites but also encouraged elsewhere:

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I've found the Society for Technical Communication Usability & User Experience group to be useful when considering color blindness in designs and tests, as well as a number of other usability topics. Particularly useful for color-blind design are some of the linked tools near the bottom of the page.

One that I've really liked but isn't listed on that site is a program called Sim Daltonism, which will display a set of alternate views of a hovered screen area based on various kinds of vision impairments.

Further color-blind consideration is discussed at Design Matrix.

Also, a how-to page based on the newest W3C guidelines is found here

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