Knowbility
Accessibility Master Class
Robert Jolly, Becky Gibson, Eric Eggert
Accessing Higher Ground · November 2018
https://slides.com/yatil/2018-11-ahg-master-class?token=uPz37RQP
Web Accessibility Perspectives
How People with Disabilities Use the Web
There are many reasons why people may be experiencing varying degrees of auditory, cognitive, physical, speech, and visual disabilities. For instance, some may have disabilities from birth, an illness, disease, or accident, or they may develop impairments with age. Some may not consider themselves to have disabilities even if they do experience such functional limitations.
Auditory
- Hard of hearing – mild or moderate hearing impairments in one or both ears.
- Deafness – substantial, uncorrectable impairment of hearing in both ears.
- Deaf-blindness – substantial, uncorrectable hearing and visual impairments.
Cognitive, learning, and neurological
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
- Intellectual disabilities
- Learning disabilities
- Mental health disabilities
- Memory impairments
- Multiple sclerosis
- Neurodiversity
- Perceptual disabilities
- Seizure disorders
Physical
- Amputation
- Arthritis, Fibromyalgia, Rheumatism
- Reduced dexterity
- Muscular dystrophy
- Repetitive stress injury (RSI)
- Tremor and spasms
- Quadriplegia
Speech
- Apraxia of speech (AOS)
- Cluttering
- Dysarthria
- Speech sound disorder
- Stuttering
- Muteness
Visual
- Color blindness
- Low vision
- Blindness
- Deaf-blindness
It’s all a spectrum and many have one or more needs at the same time.
Accessibility Design Principles
North Star
Photo by Robson Hatsukami Morgan on Unsplash
Web
Content
User
Agents
Authoring
Tools
CMS, Comments, …
Browsers, Screen Readers, Switches, …
Websites, PDFs,
Web Applications, …
Web Content Principles
from WCAG 2
Perceivable
Operable
Understandable
Robust
Perceivable
Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive.
Text Alternatives
Provide text alternatives for any non-text content so that it can be changed into other forms people need, such as large print, braille, speech, symbols or simpler language.
Time-based Media
Provide alternatives for time-based media.
Captions, Transcripts, Audio Descriptions
Adaptable
Create content that can be presented in different ways (for example simpler layout) without losing information or structure.
Distinguishable
Make it easier for users to see and hear content including separating foreground from background.
Operable
User interface components and navigation must be operable.
Keyboard Accessible
Make all functionality available from a keyboard.
Keyboard Accessible
Make all functionality available from a keyboard interface.
Enough Time
Provide users enough time to read and use content.
Seizures (and Physical Reactions)
Do not design content in a way that is known to cause seizures (or physical reactions).
Navigable
Provide ways to help users navigate, find content, and determine where they are.
Input Modalities
Make it easier for users to operate functionality through various inputs beyond keyboard.
New
in 2.1
Understandable
Information and the operation of user interface must be understandable.
Readable
Make text content readable and understandable.
Predictable
Make Web pages appear and operate in predictable ways.
Input Assistance
Help users avoid and correct mistakes.
Robust
Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.
Compatible
Maximize compatibility with current and future user agents, including assistive technologies.
Principles & Guidelines:
The Spirit of the Law
Success Criteria:
The Letter of the Law
3 Levels:
A — AA — AAA
AA+
Technically accessible does not necessarily mean usable by
people with disabilities.
The Accessibility Mindset
In the time of table layouts, web developers could create code that passed validation rules but didn’t adhere to the underlying semantic HTML model. We later developed best practices, like using lists for navigation, and with HTML5 we started to wrap those lists in nav elements.
Working with accessibility standards is similar. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 can inform your decision to make websites accessible and can be used to test that you met the success criteria.
What it can’t do is measure how well you met them.
Other talks @ AHG 2018
- Understanding WCAG 2.1 – Becky – Wed. 9:15am
- Including people with disabilities in your project design, development, testing process – Robert – Wed. 2:15pm
- What the heck is all this EPUB Hubbub about? – Becky – Wed. 2:15pm
- How to Meet WCAG Requirements with Free WAI Resources – Robert & Eric – Thu. 8:00am & 9:15am
- Keep it Simple. Accessible Design Thinking – Eric – Thu. 4pm
- Teaching Accessibility & Multi-Screen Design: A Content Strategy Master’s Course – Eric – Fri. 10:30am
More also at AccessU!
Workshops: May 14 2019
Classes: May 15–17 2019
Austin, TX