The Accessibility Roles and Responsibility Mapping (ARRM) is a framework developed by the W3C’s EOWG to help teams break down Web accessibility requirements by roles.

1. CSUN 2020 – Introducing ARRM: A Framework to Fight Accessibility Apathy
Introducing ARRM
A framework to fight accessibility apathy
CSUN ATC 2020
Anaheim, CA
March 12th, 2020
Get the slides!
bit.ly/arrm-csun2020

2. CSUN 2020 – Introducing ARRM: A Framework to Fight Accessibility Apathy
Who own accessibility on your teams?
If you are that person, how’s that working out for
you so far? Do you wish things were different?

3. CSUN 2020 – Introducing ARRM: A Framework to Fight Accessibility Apathy
Our team / your speakers
DENIS
Deque Systems
db@deque.com
BILL
Optum Technology
btyler@optum.com
LEWIS
AT&T
lewis_phillips@labs.att.com
JENNIFER
Siteimprove
jcha@siteimprove.com
SEAN
Optum Technology
sean_kelly@optum.com

4. CSUN 2020 – Introducing ARRM: A Framework to Fight Accessibility Apathy
Genesis of this project
You can only witness so many projects crash and burn due
to lack of proper planning before you do something about it.

5. CSUN 2020 – Introducing ARRM: A Framework to Fight Accessibility Apathy
Genesis of this project
Breaking down accessibility by roles…
2010 - AccessibilitéWeb comes to
CSUN with a wild, novel idea…
2011 - The ARB resource is made
available as part of WAI-Engage
(see link below)
2013 - The Canadian govt. adopts
ARB as part of its Web Experience
Toolkit framework
Resource
https://www.w3.org/community/wai-engage/wiki/Accessibility_Responsibility_Breakdown

6. CSUN 2020 – Introducing ARRM: A Framework to Fight Accessibility Apathy
Genesis of this project
And thus, ARRM picks up steam
2014 - Independent research
on role-based accessibility at
Optum Technology (Bill)
2018 - ARRM is launched at the
EOWG, with full team coming
together over the next year
2020 – And here we are today in
sunny Anaheim for CSUN 2020!

7. CSUN 2020 – Introducing ARRM: A Framework to Fight Accessibility Apathy
Introducing the ARRM project
How can we truly help organizations distribute accessibility
responsibilities across an entire cross-functional team?

8. CSUN 2020 – Introducing ARRM: A Framework to Fight Accessibility Apathy
Introducing the ARRM project
Accessibility roles and responsibility mapping
Introducing the ARRM project
• Project plan
• Framework Introduction
• Role-Based Decision tree
• Roles Description
Resource
http://bit.ly/wai-arm-project

9. CSUN 2020 – Introducing ARRM: A Framework to Fight Accessibility Apathy
Introducing the ARRM project
ARRM’s framework introduction
Resource landing page, explaining
how to use the ARRM framework
and providing some context such
as who should own accessibility and
how to refer to the different parts
of this resource.
Resource
http://bit.ly/wai-arm-resource

10. CSUN 2020 – Introducing ARRM: A Framework to Fight Accessibility Apathy
Introducing the ARRM project
ARRM’s role definition document
A list of all the different roles that
can exist within a cross-functional
product team: business, design,
implementation and QA Testing
roles. Meant to support the decision
making process.
Resource
http://bit.ly/wai-arm-definition

11. CSUN 2020 – Introducing ARRM: A Framework to Fight Accessibility Apathy
Introducing the ARRM project
ARRM’s role-based decision tree
Inspired by the concept of a RACI
matrix, and built as a framework to
define ownership for accessibility in
a cross-functional product team
with various levels of ownership
(primary, secondary, contributor).
Resource
http://bit.ly/wai-arm-decision

12. CSUN 2020 – Introducing ARRM: A Framework to Fight Accessibility Apathy
Putting the ARRM framework to the test
Break down into groups of 4-5 people and test drive the framework.
Can you easily assign ownership levels to typical accessibility tasks?

13. CSUN 2020 – Introducing ARRM: A Framework to Fight Accessibility Apathy
Putting ARRM to the test
Decision tree flow
As a reminder of the framework logic…
1. Is this checkpoint driven by Business/Non-Functional requirements?
2. Is this checkpoint about Visual Design?
3. Is this checkpoint about Content Authoring?
4. Is this checkpoint about UX Design?
5. Is this checkpoint about Implementation?
6. Is this checkpoint about Testing?
7. IF NONE OF THE ABOVE, then it’s a Management concern.

14. CSUN 2020 – Introducing ARRM: A Framework to Fight Accessibility Apathy
Putting ARRM to the test
Workshop activity
As a group, assign roles and responsibilities for the following tasks
Example checkpoints Ownership levels
Primary Secondary Contributor
Keyboard focus advances across the page in a meaningful way
Keyboard focus is not applied to non-active or static elements
Headings follow a hierarchical sequence without skipping levels
Elements that visually look like headings are marked up as such
The main heading of the page describes the content of the page

15. CSUN 2020 – Introducing ARRM: A Framework to Fight Accessibility Apathy
What does your team’s matrix look like?
Let’s take a moment to compare our results from one team to
the next. How different are those results, on this small sample?

16. CSUN 2020 – Introducing ARRM: A Framework to Fight Accessibility Apathy
Introducing the ARRM project
ARRM’s role-specific templates
Accessibility is a team effort, and
everyone has a role to play! The
first iteration of these templates
helps UX/UI designers, copywriters
and developers get started with
accessibility.
Resources
http://bit.ly/wai-arm-ux
http://bit.ly/wai-arm-visual
http://bit.ly/wai-arm-content
http://bit.ly/wai-arm-front-end

17. CSUN 2020 – Introducing ARRM: A Framework to Fight Accessibility Apathy
What do you think?
Can you see how this framework could help your team get clarity
on how to break down accessibility through your own lifecycle?

18. CSUN 2020 – Introducing ARRM: A Framework to Fight Accessibility Apathy
Discover the EOWG
Want to get involved?
The EOWG (Education and Outreach
Working Group) has many projects
going on and are always looking for
more volunteers! Wanna help out?
We’d love to welcome you as part of
the team.
Resource
https://www.w3.org/WAI/about/groups/eowg/

19. CSUN 2020 – Introducing ARRM: A Framework to Fight Accessibility Apathy
Thank you for your attention!
Want to know more about this project or get
a hold of us? Don’t hesitate to reach out!