It was an absolute pleasure speaking at the Involve Abbotsford Accessibility Symposium both as a presenter and facilitating their World Café discussions.
My day is often filled with hundreds of emails and virtual meetings, and in that repetition, it is easy to forget just how energizing it is to be in a room full of passionate people. Everyone I met was engaged and eager to improve their businesses, digital spaces, and customers’ experiences. Rarely, when I present, do I find groups so eager to learn, collaborate, problem-solve, and plan for meaningful change.
Keynote: Digital Accessibility: The Key to Business Success
My morning session focused on a single message: accessibility improves experiences and outcomes for everyone, not just those with disabilities. We explored practical, solution-focused ways to achieve accessibility across websites, documents, and social media. Here is the overview of these sessions.
Website Accessibility Essentials:
- Ensure every link and interactive element can be navigated to using the tab key.
- Add alt text to important images.
- Keep content clear, concise, and written in plain language.
- Maintain good text contrast and reasonable font size ratios.
- Use predictable, consistent formatting across all pages.
- Write descriptive link text (e.g., “Read our blog,” not “Click here”)
- Structure headings meaningfully and follow proper H1–H6 hierarchy.
Document Accessibility Best Practices:
- Use formatting styles intentionally (titles, headings, lists, etc.).
- Ensure strong text contrast and accessible font sizes.
- Prioritize clear, plain-language content.
- Add alt text for important images, graphs, and charts.
- Export to PDF rather than printing to PDF to preserve accessibility tags.
- Use built-in accessibility checkers and correct flagged issues.
- Offer multiple formats when possible (TXT, DOCX, PDF, etc.).
Social Media Accessibility Guidelines:
- Include captions for all spoken or auditory content.
- Add alt text or video descriptions for all posts.
- Use clear, easy-to-read sans-serif fonts.
- Maintain high contrast between text and background.
- Keep emoji use minimal.
- Use CamelCase for hashtags (e.g., #ExampleTag).
- Write concise, easy-to-understand post descriptions.
The World Cafe: Collaborative Problem-Solving
I wasn’t sure what to expect from the World Café in the afternoon, but it was truly the highlight of the symposium. Each of the six tables explored complex accessibility issues, which cycled every 5-10 minutes. My group’s questions centred around digital accessibility. I’ve highlighted some of my favourite responses below each question. There were far too many to share in full here (and my memory fails me 😛).
Q: What are the most common digital accessibility barriers on websites and social media—and how can we design content that’s inclusive from the start?
- Poor contrast - ensure everything is readable and text isn’t on a busy background
- Poor UI - make sure everyone can find what they need without digging
- Include multi-sensory engagement - images next to links like a house next to home buttons
- No down arrow in menus to know if more things will open in the menu - show which items open sub-menus
- Not knowing what to click on - underline or otherwise highlight link text that you can engage with
- Inconsistent pages and layouts- keep page layout consistent to reduce user fatigue
- Difficult to contact someone - make contact and travel information easy to find
- Include accessibility from the start - it’s easier to build a website with accessibility built in than fix it later (rebuilding twice)
- Have real people with disabilities check the page to see if it works properly
Q: What role does digital accessibility play in overall user experience, and how can different departments collaborate to improve it across platforms?
- Build accessible practices into workflows for anyone who deals with digital content; writers, social media, correspondences, marketing, developers, etc.
- Don’t add it [accessibility] at the end.
- Have a handbook or checklist to refer to for common accessibility issues
- Have a style guide for solutions to previously identified issues
- Accessibility improves usability for everyone, but most importantly for those with disabilities
- Websites are often the first place people visit for your business, first impressions matter a lot
Q: How can we prioritize digital accessibility in our strategic planning and budgeting—and what are the risks of not doing so?
- Accessibility costs less when we build it into development and testing throughout. We [a university developer] had big issues with our website that we didn’t know about until students started complaining. We could have avoided that by talking about or testing for accessibility earlier.
- We need to look for contractors who know how to include accessibility features, so we aren’t fixing things or building them twice.
- We set up our first business we were unaware of accessibility regulations. We thought we did it right, but got huge fines and had to redo a bunch of work [not referring to digital space, but a physical store front]
- Including accessibility gives us better social and community engagement on our social platforms, and it’s a feel-good marketing angle that our competition is ignoring [auto-body shop owner]
As groups rotated, the energy remained high. Participants contributed personal experiences, identified common barriers, and brainstormed practical solutions to bring back to their businesses. Ideas built on each other, making each round an even richer conversation.
Takeaways:
It was inspiring to see the city invest in its small-business community through a symposium. Even more inspiring was seeing business owners, creators, and makers participate with such enthusiasm to learn, grow, and rethink how they design for others.
Abbotsford should be proud. This event demonstrated a real commitment to inclusivity, innovation, and community-driven progress. I left the symposium energized and grateful for the opportunity to share in that momentum.