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Jaswant Sandhu

Technical Architect at HPE

  1. Could you please tell us about yourself - your work experience, and projects you have done so far?

    Jaswant: Hello All, I have 12 years of industry experience on the web. Currently working as UI Architect at HPE. I have worked on websites, products, apps, and even gaming sites. I am also a tech speaker at different conferences and meetups.

  2. Do you consider accessibility as an architect?

    Jaswant: Yes, I do. But there are challenges while implementing from the technology perspective and team. Especially when the project is not consumer-facing then it becomes the most challenging.

  3. What are the challenges as an architect you have faced for accessibility?

    Jaswant: I can think of:

    1. Convincing the leadership to consider the accessibility
    2. Creating awareness within the team
    3. Creating the scope of accessibility
    4. Adding accessibility budget and timelines in the project
    5. Giving the priority to the accessibility bugs

  4. In your team how many developers are aware of accessibility?

    Jaswant: Well No. In my 14 years of career, I met only a few developers who are aware of the accessibility. This is the basis of all the issues - lack of awareness. Developers just focus on the delivery and don't focus on the accessibility. In fact in the code review exercises also there are no comments on the accessibility issues.

  5. What can we do to create awareness of accessibility?

    Jaswant: Well if you look around us we don’t give much importance to accessibility in our day-to-day life. Eg: buildings, hotels, parks, etc. only 1-2 are accessible. No accessible walking area, no parking lots, no cinema halls are accessible. Accessibility is always the last thing on the list. So, first, we need to create awareness in our daily life. We need education not just on laws but in creating empathy. Things will change from there.

    I have seen a lot of web development courses, meetups, conferences, youtube tutorial videos, etc. they don’t talk about accessibility at all. Yet people follow those. We are creating a new generation of developers who don't know what accessibility is and why it is important. So, awareness should start from there as well as make it part of the interview process too as you recently said in your React Day India conference.

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