Miles Ahead Project
American Society on Aging

This page is part of the Access-a-thon Pre-Conference Workshop presented by Miles Ahead Project at On Aging 2026, the annual conference of the American Society on Aging (ASA).

Access-a-thon

A Collaborative Digital Accessibility Workshop

This page contains links and resources for attendees at the On Aging 2026 Access-a-thon pre-conference workshop.

Update: Resources for further learning.

Note: We’ll do our best to stay on schedule, but these times are approximate and may shift based on group discussion, questions, and the flow of activities.

8:00–8:10 AM (10 minutes) – Welcome & Getting Started

  • Welcome
  • Accessibility information
  • Community agreements
  • Introductions
  • Workshop resources overview: Workshop webpage, slides decks, Google doc

8:10–8:15 AM (15 minutes) – Building Shared Understanding

  • Review key terms: Disability, Disability Justice, and Ableism
  • A note about language: Person-first vs. Identity-first language
  • Models of Disability: Different ways to understand disability
  • Access needs: Understanding diverse accessibility requirements

8:15–8:20 AM (5 minutes) – Assistive Technology & Adaptive Strategies

  • Understanding how people use the internet
  • Adaptive strategies: Real-world examples of how people navigate digital spaces
  • Assistive technologies: Introduction to tools that make digital content accessible

8:20–8:25 AM (5 minutes) – What is Digital Accessibility?

  • Defining Digital Accessibility
  • WCAG guidelines: Brief overview of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
  • POUR principles: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust

8:25–8:50 AM (25 minutes) – Perceivable

  • Grounding: Creativity and expression with Sins Invalid
  • Alt text
  • Captions, transcripts, and audio descriptions
  • ASL
  • Using color thoughtfully
  • Sensory language
  • Headings
  • Responsive design/Zoom

8:50–9:10 AM (20 minutes) – Hands-on Practice/Co-Working Session

During this time you can:

  • Work independently or with others to test your website for perceivable barriers and apply fixes
  • Begin working through the perceivable practice activities on the Workshop webpage
  • Rest, move around, take a break.

9:10–9:15 AM (5 minutes) – Break

Time to stretch, grab water, and recharge!

9:15–9:30 AM (15 minutes) – Operable

  • Grounding: Inspiration Porn with Stella Young
  • Keyboard navigation
  • Target size
  • Reducing clutter
  • User control
  • Avoiding auto-play
  • Preventing flashing

9:30–9:45 AM (15 minutes) – Hands-on Practice/Co-working

During this time you can:

  • Work independently or with others to practice navigating your website, or any website with your keyboard
  • Begin working through the Operable practice activities on the Workshop webpage
  • Rest, move around, take a break.

9:45–9:55 AM (10 minutes) – Break

Time to stretch, grab water, and recharge!

9:55–10:15 AM (20 minutes) – Making Content Understandable

  • Grounding: Disability Pride with Tiffany Yu
  • Plain language
  • Clear link text
  • Consistent navigation
  • Language identification
  • Accessible forms

10:15–10:35 AM (20 minutes) – Hands-on Practice/Co-working

During this time you can:

  • Work independently or with others to practice navigating your website, or any website with your keyboard
  • Begin working through the Operable practice activities on the Workshop webpage
  • Rest, move around, take a break.

10:35–10:40 AM (5 minutes) – Break

10:40–10:55 AM (15 minutes) – Making Content Robust

  • Grounding: Self-determination and Community Care with Crip Camp
  • Avoiding overlays
  • Keeping plugins and themes updated
  • Testing on multiple browsers and devices

10:55–11:35 AM (40 minutes) – Hands-on Practice/Co-working

Put your new skills into practice: This is our final co-working session.

  • Choose your project: Work on your own content or practice examples
  • Apply what you’ve learned: Implement accessibility improvements
  • Get support: Facilitator is available to help answer questions
  • Collaborate: Work with others or go solo

11:35–11:50 AM (15 minutes) – Sharing & Reflection

Let’s celebrate our learning!

  • What’s one idea or skill from this course that surprised or inspired you?
  • How will you apply what you’ve learned to your website or to other digital projects you’re part of?
  • What’s one way you’d like to keep growing your knowledge about accessibility in the future?

11:50 AM–12:00 PM (10 minutes) – Closing

  • Final reflections and key takeaways
  • Ongoing connection: You have the option of sharing your contact info in our Google doc to stay connected
  • Remember: Accessibility is an ongoing journey, not a destination. Every step you take makes digital spaces more inclusive for everyone!

Slide Decks

You can access the presentation decks any time. There are two versions of the presentation deck. Both contain the same information but the text version does not include decorative graphics. You are welcome to follow along with the version that feels most supportive to you.

Shared Google Doc

We’ll be using a Shared Google Document during the workshop to take collaborative notes and to share and access resources.

Demo Videos and Practice Pages

Introduction

When we center disabled people’s experiences, expertise and requirements to fully participate in society, our designs are stronger and more impactful, ultimately benefiting everyone.

Perceivable

“Can people access, understand, and interact with your content using their senses?”

What you’ll practice:

Your options for practice:

These activities can be completed during our workshop or as extra practice after the workshop.

Open the Practice: Alternative Text page to complete this activity. This page includes images paired with sample blog text to provide context. Review each image and its current alt text.

For each image:

  1. Inspect the image’s HTML to find the current alt text.
  2. Decide if the alt text is effective, needs improvement, or is missing.
  3. Write your own improved alt text or note why the existing alt text works well.

Additional Alt Text Tools and Resources:

  • Alt Text Decision Tree: A decision tree to help you determine if an image is truly decorative or a background image or if it needs alt text.
  • Image Alt Text Viewer: Chrome Extension: This Chrome extension displays image alt text and reports if alt text/attributes are missing.
  • Developer Tools (Chrome)
  • Alt Text Guide: A best practices guide that dives deeper into how to write good alt text.

Audio description adds spoken narration to describe visual elements that are important for understanding video content. It makes visual information perceivable for people who are blind, have low vision, or look away from the screen.For this activity, first watch the “Pride Rock” scene from The Lion King (opens in YouTube) then reflect on that experience guided by the reflection questions.

Reflection questions:

Reflect on the following questions.

  • How might providing audio description on your own organization’s videos support older adults and disabled viewers?
  • What did you notice about how the audio description added to your understanding of the scene?
  • What information might you have missed if you couldn’t see the visuals?
  • How did the audio description affect your attention, focus, or emotional connection to the scene?

For this activity, you’ll practice checking color contrast on a real example of poor contrast text.

Instructions:

  1. Go to the practice page: Practice: Poor Color Contrast
  2. Scroll down to the text on the page. The text is intentionally designed with different color combinations so you can practice identifying color contrast issues.
  3. If you don’t know the hex color of the text or the background, use a color picker tool like Eyedropper to find and copy the hex codes.
  4. Go to the WebAIM Contrast Checker.
  5. Paste the hex codes for the text and background into the contrast checker.
  6. Record your findings:
    • Hex code for the text color:
    • Hex code for the background color:
    • What was the contrast ratio
    • Does this combination pass WCAG AA for normal text? 
    • Does it pass WCAG AAA for normal text? 

For this exercise, you’ll use the sample content provided in the Accessibility Practice page. Pretend the content is a standalone webpage, and follow these steps.

Activity Instructions:

  1. Download the HeadingsMap Extension from the Chrome Web Store.
  2. Open Practice: Heading Structure page in Google Chrome
    • Make sure you’re using the Chrome browser for this exercise. 
    • The page contains two examples for you to review.
  3. Open HeadingsMap on the Page
    • Once on the page, click the HeadingsMap icon in your Chrome toolbar. 
    • The tool will display a list of all headings in order, along with their levels (H1, H2, H3, etc.).
  4. Review the Heading Structure:
    • Does the heading structure make sense?
    • Are headings nested logically?
    • Are there any skipped heading levels?
  5. Record your observations:
    • Write down what you noticed about the heading structure of each section.
    • What worked well?
    • What could be improved?
    • How might confusing or inconsistent headings affect older adults or disabled visitors using assistive technology?

Zooming helps you see how your website adapts when people enlarge text or the whole page — something many older adults and people with low vision rely on.

How to zoom on different devices:

  • Windows: Press Ctrl and + to zoom in, or Ctrl and – (minus) to zoom out.
  • Mac: Press Cmd and + to zoom in, or Cmd and – (minus) to zoom out.
  • iPhone/iPad: Use a two-finger pinch-out gesture to zoom in on the screen. You can also enable system-wide Zoom in iOS under Settings → Accessibility → Zoom.
  • Android: Use a two-finger pinch-out gesture in the browser. You can also enable Magnification under Settings → Accessibility → Magnification.

Activity Instructions:

  1. Open your organization’s website on a desktop or laptop.
  2. Zoom in to at least 200%.
  3. Repeat on a smartphone or tablet if you can.
  4. Reflect on your findings. Look for:
    • Does zoom work at all?
    • Does zoom work consistently across devices and browsers
    • Does text stay readable without overlapping or getting cut off?
    • Do images and buttons remain visible and usable?
    • Is there horizontal scrolling on text content?
    • Does any content or do any buttons disappear when zoomed?
    • Do fixed-size containers prevent text from expanding?

Operable

“Can people move through and interact with your content in ways that work for their bodies, tools, and preferences?”

What you’ll practice:

Your options for practice:

These activities can be completed during our workshop or as extra practice after the workshop.

Many people rely on keyboard-only setups, switch devices, or other alternative input technologies to browse the web without a mouse. Testing your site this way helps ensure it can be navigated effectively by these users.

How to test keyboard navigation:

  1. Open your website.
  2. Use the Tab key to move forward through interactive elements like links, buttons, and form fields.
  3. Use Shift + Tab to move backward.
  4. Press Enter to:
    • Activate links.
    • Submit forms.
  5. Press the Spacebar to:
    • Activate buttons.
    • Toggle checkboxes or other interactive elements.

Visit the Practice: Focus Indicator page to complete this activity.

Use your keyboard to navigate the page:

  1. Open the practice page.
  2. Press the Tab key repeatedly to move forward through the page’s interactive elements.
  3. Press Shift + Tab to move backward.
  4. As you tab through the page, notice when you see a clear focus indicator (an outline or highlight) showing where you are on the page.

Reflection question:

What did you learn about how clear focus indicators and logical focus order affect the usability of a website for keyboard users?

Visit the Practice: Skip Links page to complete this activity.

What to do:

  1. Go to the practice page: Practice: Skip Link
  2. Try using the skip link:
    • Press the Tab key once.
    • You should see a “Skip to main content” link appear at the top of the page.
    • Press Enter to activate the skip link and jump directly to the main content area.
  3. Now try navigating without using the skip link:
    • Refresh the page.
    • Press Tab repeatedly to move through each link in the navigation menu until you reach the main content.
    • Notice how many keystrokes it takes and how long it takes to get there.

Reflection questions:

  • What difference did you notice between using and not using the skip link?
  • Imagine a website with a large, complex menu that includes many items. Based on your experience using the skip link on the test page, what do you think it would feel like to tab through each of those links on every single page as you navigate a website?
  • How could adding skip links improve navigation and reduce frustration for your site visitors?

Understandable

“Can people understand how your content is organized, what it says, and what will happen when they interact with it?”

What you’ll practice:

Your options for practice:

These activities can be completed during our workshop or as extra practice after the workshop.

In this activity, examples of sentences with complex or confusing language are provided. Rewrite each one in plain language so it’s clearer and easier for everyone to understand.

Sample Text One:

“Patients presenting for scheduled medical interventions should arrive at the designated facility no less than fifteen minutes prior to the appointment time to ensure adequate completion of pre-procedural administrative requirements.” 

Sample Text Two:

“Participants interested in enrolling for senior center fitness programs must complete the health screening questionnaire and obtain physician clearance for moderate physical activity participation.”

Sample Text Three:

“Users accessing the digital platform must acknowledge terms of service compliance and maintain current contact information for account security verification purposes.”

Sample Text Four:

“Passengers utilizing public transit services should consult the route-specific timetable documentation to ascertain appropriate departure times corresponding to their intended destination and travel date parameters.”

Sample Text Five:

“Service subscribers experiencing interruptions in utility provision should contact the customer assistance line to initiate service restoration procedures and provide account verification information.”

For this activity you will evaluate link text on your website. Remember, link text should:

  • Clearly describe the destination
  • Make sense out of context
  • Mention the file type, if relevant (PDF, Video, etc.)
  • Be visually distinguishable (not using color alone)

Activity Instructions:

  1. Choose a page on your organization’s website (or a site you manage) that includes several links.
  2. Make a list of 5–10 links exactly as they appear on the page.
  3. For each link, note if the text is descriptive or vague. (Would you know where the link or button leads based on the link text alone?)
  4. For each link, note if it is visually distinct (not using color alone).
  5. Rewrite any vague links to be clear and meaningful on their own. You can use the table on the next page. (The first two rows are examples.)

Reflection:

  • How did it feel to look at your website through this lens?
  • What patterns did you notice in how your links are written?

Activity Instructions:

  1. Open your organization’s website in your browser.
  2. Right-click anywhere on the page and choose “View Page Source” (or use your browser’s developer tools).
  3. Look near the top of the code for a line like this: <html lang=”en”>
    • The letters in the quotes (e.g., en, es, fr) indicate the language declared for your page.
  4. Record what you find:
    • What language is declared? 
    • Is it the correct language for most of your website’s content?
  5. If you find incorrect or missing language declarations, make a note to discuss this with your team or website vendor.

Declaring the correct language in your website’s settings helps screen readers pronounce words correctly and supports translation tools. Here are links to official instructions for setting your site’s language in popular website builders:

In this activity, you’ll practice identifying accessibility barriers in online forms by reviewing a sample form we’ve created for you.

Activity Instructions:

  • Go to Practice: Forms.
  • On the first form on the page, pay close attention to these key questions:
    • Are the form fields clearly labeled, or are labels missing?
    • Does the lack of labels make it confusing to know what information to enter?
    • Are error messages helpful and specific when you make a mistake, or do they leave you guessing what went wrong?
    • How might these issues affect someone using a screen reader, keyboard navigation, or anyone who processes information more slowly?

Reflection: What barriers did you notice in the first form? What do you think the impact(s) of those barriers might be?

Robust

“Can your content be understood and used by a wide range of devices and assistive technologies?”

What you’ll practice:

Your website visitors will use a variety of devices and browsers, so it’s important to check how your site works across them.

For this activity, open your website on at least two different browsers (like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge) and on at least two devices (such as a desktop/laptop, tablet, or smartphone).

As you explore your site, try these checks:

  • Zoom in to at least 200% — does your content stay readable and usable?
  • Navigate with the keyboard — can you see where your focus is? Does focus move in a logical order?
  • Check for missing or broken elements — do buttons, menus, or interactive features work on all browsers and devices?
  • Test basic responsiveness — does your layout adjust correctly on different screen sizes, or do elements overlap or disappear?

Reflection:

  • How did your website perform across different browsers and devices? 
  • What improvements could you make to ensure a consistent, accessible experience for everyone?

Co-Working Time: 

Dedicated time for you to apply everything you’ve learned throughout the workshop.

Use this time to:

This gives you the perfect opportunity to put all your accessibility skills into practice and make meaningful progress on your project!

Social Media

Resources to Continue Learning

WordPress Accessibility Day is a 24-hour global event dedicated to promoting and learning website accessibility best practices for WordPress websites. This year’s event is on October 7-8, 2026.

All past WordPress Accessibility Day presentations are freely available with full transcripts and captions

Creating Accessible PDFs is a LinkedInLearning course led by Chad Chelius. The course covers how to make existing PDFs accessible as well how to create accessible PDFs using Microsoft Word and PowerPoint and Adobe InDesign.

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