Accessibility by Design: A Continuous Process Model for Web Developers

The article aims to explore the concept of "accessibility" and provide a general context for the creation of an inclusive society in modern conditions, making a special accent on IT industry. As part of the work, an analysis of statistical data from public sources on people with disabilities, as well as legal norms and laws regarding their support and integration into society was carried out among Ukraine, the European Union, and the United States of America. It was found that people with disabilities make up a significant part of modern society, and the legal basis of the developed countries is systematically updated and expanded in the context of supporting people with special needs, placing formal requirements on suppliers of goods and services. On the other hand, it was also found that people with disabilities form a significant group of consumers, so the support of inclusiveness trends has a positive effect on the income of modern companies, from which a conclusion was made about the relevance of an accessibility processes in the conditions of modern business and the IT sphere in particular. During the study, an analysis of current trends in the software development industry in the context of accessibility was carried out, as well as an analysis of web accessibility standards, mainly the "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)" due to its recognition and prevalence, flexibility and adaptability to new technologies, systematic maintenance, and support, as well as integration into the legal framework of the developed countries. Accessibility of the web application was studied in the context of the development lifecycle, at the next stages: requirements analysis, design creation, writing of software code and testing. A model of continuous accessibility process for projects with flexible iterative processes was proposed, which involves a use of technical means, such as static code validators, browser extensions or comprehensive solutions for automated accessibility testing. It was concluded that the comprehensive and systematic use of both organizational and technical accessibility practices at all stages of iterative development is a key factor in the success of the implementation of this initiative in modern software development processes.