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Julia 👩🏻‍💻 GDE
Julia 👩🏻‍💻 GDE

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Why To Focus On Accessibility

When I started programming over a year ago, I became interested in the topic of accessibility very early on. I'm interested in this topic not only because it's the right thing to do or the logical thing to do, but also because I want to write good and clean code.

And using semantic HTML and the right aria attributes is for me part of the basic knowledge that every frontend developer should have.

Lately, however, another good reason why focusing on accessibility is a good choice is becoming more and more apparent: The need for accessibility developers.

What do I mean by that?

A few months ago, LinkedIn officially added accessibility to their job titles. And certainly not without reason.

Because the accessibility law is getting more and more serious (like web security). There's only one direction it's going to go: In the next few years, more and more companies will have to comply with accessibility requirements, and those companies will be looking for people who are knowledgeable about the subject.

There aren't that many UX designers, front-end developers, and QA testers with a good knowledge of accessibility (yet). So focusing on this now will give you a big advantage when you apply for a job.

In Austria, for example, not only state-owned companies, but also companies with more than 10 employees and annual sales of more than 2 million euros must meet accessibility requirements to avoid being sued (Accessibility Act (BaFG)).

And by 2025, this law is to be applied throughout Europe. The laws are getting stricter and stricter, and that's a good thing.

And for all these reasons, I advise you to get familiar with accessibility. I'm preparing my learning website YurisCodingClub for CodeNewbies, portfolio creators and job seekers in such a way that accessibility is already incorporated into the learning process. You can thank me later 😇

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