Sara Soueidan

Front-End UI/UX Developer

Talk - Applied Accessibility: Practical Tips for Building More Accessible Front-Ends

As front-end developers, we are tasked with building the front end of a Web site or application — in other words, we are building the user's end of an interface. This is why it is crucial that we ensure that the front-end foundations that we build are as inclusive of and accessible to as many users as possible. To do that, we must build with accessibility in mind from the get-go. This, in turn, means that the way we approach writing HTML, CSS, SVG and JavaScript might need to change as we take into consideration many factors that affect how (in)accessible our UIs are.

This talk is a practical one, chock-full of tips for creating more accessible front-end foundations. If writing HTML, CSS, SVG and JavaScript is part of your job, then this talk is for you.

In this session — a series of macro case studies from real client projects — Sara shares some frustrations, many lessons learned, and a lot of practical tips and tricks for building accessible front-end foundations that you can take and apply in your own projects right away.

About

Sara Soueidan is an independent front-end Web developer based in Lebanon. She works with companies and agencies around the world, helping them build front-end foundations with strong focus on responsive design, progressive enhancement, accessibility, and performance, using the latest front-end and design techniques.

Sara speaks and runs front-end workshops at international conferences. She also trains teams of designers and developers in-house at companies including Netflix, TELUS, and the Royal Schiphol Group at Amsterdam Airport.

When she’s not doing any of the above, she writes and shares her knowledge and experience on her blog and for various online magazines such as Smashing Magazine, A List Apart, Codrops, and more.

Sara is the author of the Codrops CSS Reference, co-author of Smashing Book 5 — a book that covers time-saving, practical techniques for crafting fast, maintainable and scalable responsive websites.

In 2015, Sara was voted Developer of the Year in the net awards, and nominated for Outstanding Contribution of the Year. She was also awarded an O’Reilly Web Platform Award for “exceptional leadership, creativity, and collaboration in the development of JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and the supporting Web ecosystem.”

In her spare time, Sara likes to exercise, experiment with making new healthy smoothie recipes, and loves to raise and spend time with birds.