Agenda
📅 Accessibility Book Club – May 2025 Meeting
🎥 First-Ever Livestream on YouTube!
đź“– Featuring special guest: Ashley Firth, author of Practical Web Accessibility
🎙️ Hosted by Jon Farrell | Co-hosted by Crystal Scott
đź“Ť Streaming live on YouTube | May 20, 2025 at 1:00 PM PT
Join us for a very special edition of the Accessibility Book Club as we host our first live-streamed meeting on YouTube, featuring an exclusive Q&A with Ashley Firth, author of Practical Web Accessibility: A Comprehensive Guide to Digital Inclusion (2nd Edition).
Author
Ashley Firth is the Global Director of Engineering at Octopus Energy, one of the UK's leading technology-driven energy providers. A passionate accessibility advocate, Ashley has helped shape inclusive practices at scale, overseeing digital experiences for millions of users. As one of the earliest employees at Octopus Energy, he’s been instrumental in building accessibility into the culture and codebase from the ground up.
In his best-selling book, Practical Web Accessibility, Ashley provides a clear, actionable guide for anyone involved in creating digital experiences—whether you're a designer, developer, content strategist, product manager, or simply someone who cares about building a better web. The newly released second edition includes the latest updates from WCAG 2.2, exploratory guidance on WCAG 3.0, real-world case studies, and original tools like the FAIR Framework and ACCESS Checklist.
This book has become a go-to resource for Accessibility Book Club members and is one of our most requested reads of all time.
What to Expect in the Meeting
- A warm welcome from host Jon Farrell and co-host Crystal Scott, founder of Graceful Web Studio and the Accessibility Book Club
- An interactive Q&A session with Ashley Firth, where we’ll dive into:
- How accessibility responsibilities should be handled by creators
- Why overlays and bolt-on solutions fall short
- The challenges blind users face and how screen reader support must be built into your code
- Practical, evergreen strategies that teams of all sizes can apply
- and much more...
- Reflections on your favorite takeaways from the first half of the book
- Community member questions welcomed
- Club updates and announcements
🎥 This meeting will be livestreamed publicly on YouTube for the very first time, allowing even more people to join in, comment, and engage live with the author and club members. Whether you’ve read every chapter or are just cracking open the book, you’re welcome here.
💬 We believe in community-powered learning—and we can't wait to see you there.
