Three Things Developers Can Do to Make the World a Healthier Place

As you may have heard, today is World Health Day and the World Health Organization (WHO) is calling on us all to come together to eliminate health inequities over the next 12 months. They are challenging us all to “build a fairer, healthier world.” And this got us thinking. What can developers do to eliminate health inequities? How can we leverage our skillset to help achieve this worthy goal?

So, we came up with three things we think developers can do today.

Make Our Apps Accessible

Making our apps accessible is a natural first step in eliminating equities. For many developers, this sounds and feels like a daunting task. But as they say, knowledge is power so we’ve pulled together a list of five or our favorite accessibility pieces. They are easy reads, I promise, and you’ll walk away with a better grasp on what you can do to democratize your apps.

 

1. Types of Disabilities and User Experience. Learn what kinds of disabilities you should consider when you are building your apps. Nada Rifki covers the basics of mobility/physical impairments, hearing impairments, visual impairments, and cognitive/learning/neurological disabilities.

2. Motor Disabilities and What You Need for Accessibility. Chris Ward dives deeper into not only what motor disabilities are, but how you can make you apps usable to folks who have them.

3. Auditory Disabilities and What You Need for Accessibility. Another in the series by Chris Ward, this article provides a detailed look at what auditory disabilities are and how your apps can provide them with the same experience as those without such a disability.

4. Vision Disabilities and What You Need for Accessibility. Much like his other articles in this series, Chris Ward provides a detailed look at vision disabilities and how you can make your apps accessibility for people who experience them.

5. Tips for Building Accessible Design Systems. Design Systems allow developers and designers to collaborate by providing a collection of reusable components and a set of standards (guiding principles, rules, etc.). Given that the Design System is meant to be used repeatedly throughout an organization, it is imperative to have an accessibility-first mindset when building one. In this article by Suzanne Scacca, you’ll learn about six of today’s most common accessibility issues you should consider when building your Design System.

Learn about Semantic HTML & Accessibility—Tune Into CodeItLive on April 13

On Tuesday, April 13, at 11 a.m. EDT, Ed Charbeneau and Chris DeMars will be talking about Semantic HTML and accessibility on twitch.tv/CodeItLive. Pop into the channel to learn more and to chat with them as they provide real-world examples. If you haven’t experienced twitch, it’s casual and extremely interactive. You can chat with the hosts and other viewers while they are livestreaming their conversation and code. If you can’t make the live show, don’t worry. We will record it and make it available on our YouTube channel.

Build the Makes the World a Better Place—Join the Worthy Web App Challenge

Coincidentally, we also kicked off something of our own today–the Worthy Web Hackathon designed to challenge developers to create web apps that make the world a better place. We have nine prize categories and a total prize purse of $40,000 USD! The hackathon runs through May 24.

To be eligible to win, your app must include one or more Telerik UI for Blazor, Kendo UI for Angular or KendoReact UI components on the frontend. And the app must do or promote goodness. If you are moved by the WHO’s mission to eliminate health inequities, perhaps you can create an app the makes healthcare more accessible in the most remote corners of the world? We have a few app ideas in the “Resources” section of the hackathon site. Learn more by visiting the Worthy Web Hackathon page on DevPost.

This is really just the tip of the iceberg. What ideas do you have? How can developers make the world a healthier place for everyone? We’d love to hear your thoughts–please share them either in the comments or on Twitter (make sure you tag us - @Telerik, @Kendoui or @ProgressSW).