Resources to Expand Your Accessibility Expertise

I am lucky to know some fantastic people in the cybersecurity community who do a lot for accessible and usable security. One of those people is Britta Offergeld, who has spent a good part of her career working and supporting others in this area. Thanks to Britta, I have some great starting points, tips, and resources to share for those that need additional support getting you, your teams, and your businesses set up securely. Although some organizations and links I share might be New Zealand-specific, I will try and give you enough information so you can search for similar organizations in your local area or country.

Community Advice and Professional Help

Online or regional community groups are a great place to start when it comes to picking software or technology that best suits your abilities.

There are country-wide or regional groups that provide support to specific impairment groups, like Deaf Aotearoa (an organization that provides services to the deaf community in New Zealand) or Blind Low Vision NZ (an organization that provides services to the blind and low-vision communities in New Zealand). Groups like these may have resources or community networks they can point you to in order to get advice on software, technology, and security. They also may have assistive technology advisors or trainers on-hand that they can recommend if you want to get professional support.

There are also online community groups, such as AppleVis (a leading resource for blind and low-vision users of Apple products) and various subreddits on Reddit. Sharing experiences and getting advice directly from others with similar abilities is the best way to get support. In this book we can recommend all the different accounts that you should keep protected in your password manager and how you can effectively use it with your team, and these communities can help you find the best password manager that works best with any assistive technology or strategies you use.

Another way to get support is to ask a professional. Assistive technology advisors and trainers are professionals who specialize in helping those with disabilities. If you can’t find these advisors and trainers through your country or regional groups, you can check out directories like the member directory for the Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA). Their members provide a range of different support services, including support for assistive technology and tools.

Recommended Links for Accessibility Research

We collected the resources we went through above, as well as a few others recommended by myself and accessibility experts. We aim to keep this section updated and growing, and if there are any resources that have been valuable to you in the past we would love to hear about them.