Accessible by default: writing a book like software

A new post from ben.balter.com · Read it on the web →The build pipeline behind Open and Async is absurdly over-engineered—five formats out of one Markdown source, a real browser auditing every push, the works. I built it to satisfy my own compulsions, not a standard (or, more honestly, as an exercise in structured procrastination: elaborate tooling is a great way to not write the book it’s for). Then I went to check whether the ebook was actually accessible and found out it already was. It meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA, spelled out in the book’s accessibility statement. Almost none of it was on purpose. Here’s what actually did the work, and what it missed. Markdown won’t let you fake structure# Most of accessibility, at least for a book, is structure. Headings that are actually headings, lists that are actually lists, and links that say where they go. Markdown is inflexible about that, in the best way. ## is an <h2> or it’s nothing. There’s no…