Get Involved

Start with accessibility

If you build anything -- websites, documents, presentations, apps, spaces -- build it so everyone can use it. That is default respect in action. It means thinking about who you might be leaving out before you ship, not after someone complains.

Resources worth your time:

WCAG Guidelines -- The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are the standard. Start with Level AA. Read it. Use it.

WebAIM -- Practical tools and training for web accessibility. Their contrast checker and WAVE tool are essential.

The A11Y Project -- A community-driven resource for learning and implementing digital accessibility.

Fable -- Connects organizations with people with disabilities to test and improve digital products. Real users. Real feedback.

Check your defaults

When you meet someone new, what is your starting assumption? That they are competent, or that they need to prove it? That they belong, or that they need to justify being there?

You do not need to announce that you respect people. You just need to actually do it. In how you speak, what you build, who you include, and how much room you leave for people to be different from you.

Amplify, do not speak for

If someone with a disability is talking about their experience, listen. Share their words if they want that. But do not repackage their story into your narrative about being a good person.

Allyship is not a badge. It is labor. It is boring, repetitive, unglamorous labor that mostly involves doing the right thing when nobody is watching.

Build better

If you are a developer, test with a keyboard. Test with a screen reader. Test with Voice Control. Test with high contrast mode. Test with zoom at 200%. If your site breaks, fix it. If your app cannot be used without a mouse, that is not a feature gap -- it is an exclusion.

If you are a manager, ask your team how they work best and then actually let them do it. If you are a designer, question every assumption about what "normal" users look like.

If you are a human being walking around on this planet, give people room. Assume less. Listen more. Lead with the respect you would want if you were the one having the hard day.

Pass it on

This is not a membership. There is no signup. There is no merch. There is just a decision you make every time you interact with another person: do I start from respect, or do I make them earn it?

Choose the first one. Every time. That is how this works.