Selfish Accessibility 2025 @ Accessu

Abstract for my talk Selfish Accessibility: 2025:

More than 10 years ago I presented my talk “Selfish Accessibility,” a tongue-in-cheek discussion of how to quietly approach accessibility efforts by appealing to the bosses, clients, and vendors who otherwise might not care about disabled people, the challenges they face, or the work to include them. With the new political climate in the US, I have updated the talk to build on its core ideas while framing them in the new reality of accessibility programs getting shuttered or disbanded across the country. As a group, we will come up with personas, use cases, and arguments that we can use across to promote our efforts without triggering the kinds of reactions or retribution we fear will become the norm.

Ideally you’re here because you followed the link in the slides. Otherwise this post might not make a lot of sense.

Selfish Business Case

Links and resources I referenced in the first part of the presentation.

• Chasing the Web Accessibility Business Case – Part 1, Karl Groves, 13 April 2011
• The True Cost of Inaccessibility and Why Metrics Matter More Than Ever, Jaunita Flessas and Michael Bervell, 23 April 2025
• An HTML Element Potentially Worth $18M to Indiegogo Campaigns, Adrian Roselli, 24 September 2019
• Figma Sites is worse than you might have thought, Kevin Powell, 9 May 2025
• Do Not Publish Your Designs on the Web with Figma Sites…, Adrian Roselli, 7 May 2025
• That is one banger of a drop-caps technique from the folks at Figma!, Adrian Roselli, 9 May 2025
• Ending Illegal DEI and DEIA Discrimination and Preferences, PDF, US Attorney General Pam Bondi, 5 February 2025
• Accessibility Commitment, New York City Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities
• Five-Year Accessibility Plan Benchmark, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, 5 May 2025
• Senate Bill S3114A
• Legal Update: April 2025, Ken Nakata, 5 May 2025
• The European Accessibility Act (EAA): Country-by-country compliance data, Deque Systems, Inc.
• Global Law and Policy, Lainey Feingold

Selfish Persona Case

Links and resources from the second part of the presentation.

• Inclusive Design tools and activities, Microsoft
• Book Excerpt: A Web for Everyone, Sarah Horton, Whitney Quesenbery, 7 April 2014
• A Web for Everyone: Designing Accessible User Experiences, Sarah Horton & Whitney Quesenbery, January 2014

Selfish You Case

The briefest part of my presentation included a reference to Lainey Feingold’s CSUNATC 2025 talk.

• CSUNATC 2025 Featured Presentation: Digital Accessibility Legal Update: US, Lainey Feingold, 14 March 2025