The Decentralized Education of Digital Accessibility for Technologists

While research exists on the inaccessibility of the Internet, there is little discussion about the norms that are specific to digital accessibility practices in the technology industry. The aim of this research paper, derived from the author's unpublished dissertation at the University of Oxford, is to address this knowledge gap by gathering data on the norms that directly affect how digital accessibility practices are adopted in the technology industry. In particular, this research paper focuses on the educational aspect of digital accessibility by investigating how technological practitioners, particularly engineers and designers, learn about digital accessibility practices. Through a series of ten interviews with digital accessibility experts and technological practitioners, the researcher collected qualitative evidence of a decentralized educational process for engineers and designers who want to learn about digital accessibility. These findings illustrate a need for centralized educational options so that accessibility education becomes mainstream information for the next generation of technologists.