Web accessibility Patrick H. Lauke / Salford Business School / 23 November 2007 Making your website work for more people

Who is this guy? ● Web Editor for Salford ● Web Standards Project (WaSP) Accessibility Task Force ● Author and occasional.net magazine contributor

Outline ● What is accessibility? ● Some misconceptions about accessibility ● Why is it relevant to you? ● Some problems and potential solutions

What is accessibility? “making sure our website works for blind people...”

Wide range of disabilities ● Visual impairments ● Auditory impairments ● Mobility impairments ● Cognitive disabilities

Who cares? People with disabilities use the web like anybody else...

Surely not... ● “disabled people won't be using my site!” ● “they're a small market, it's not worth catering!” ● “don't have time to make a separate accessible site!”

Disabled people won't be using my site! What type of site is it? ● Photographer selling prints ● Art gallery ● Mountain climbing equipment ● Online music store ● Web design resource

Small market, not worth catering for! “It is estimated that there are 7 million disabled people in the UK and that around 19% of the working age population has some form of disability.” Source: Disability Rights Commission – Disability briefing January studies/archiveuk/DRC/Disability%20Briefing%20Dec% pdf studies/archiveuk/DRC/Disability%20Briefing%20Dec% pdf

No time for separate accessible site! In most cases, no need for special “disabled access” site ● “Text only” or similar not the solution ● Inclusive design, not segregation ● Separation of content and presentation, structural markup, web standards ● Accessibility considered at planning stage

Access for all ● Accessibility doesn't just benefit users with disabilities ● Hand in hand with usability ● Benefits to all users ● Real-world: access ramps – just for wheelchairs? ● “situational/temporary” disabilities ● Alternative browsing devices: PDA, web phone, etc ● “silver surfers”

Search engine optimisation (SEO)? Google and co. “world's largest disabled user”

So...where to start? ● World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) ● Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) ● Introduction to Web Accessibility ● Quick tips to make accessible websites

WCAG 1.0, 5 May 1999 ● Freely available ● Benchmark for accessibility of most simple sites (even part of some legislation) ● 14 guidelines, broken down into individual checkpoints WCAG 2.0 currently being finalised – different approach, covers wider range of sites and modern technologies.

WCAG 1.0 – examples “1. Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content.”

WCAG 1.0 – examples

“2. Don't rely on color alone.”

WCAG 1.0 – examples “2. Don't rely on color alone.”

WCAG 1.0 – examples “2. Don't rely on color alone.” ● Tools to help you assess adjacent colours ● Colour contrast analyser Firefox extension extension.php extension.php ● GrayBit

WCAG 1.0 – examples “3. Use markup and style sheets and do so properly.” This is a heading Blah blah blah Another heading Blah blah blah A sub-section Blah blah blah

WCAG 1.0 – examples “3. Use markup and style sheets and do so properly.” This is a heading Blah blah blah This is another heading Blah blah blah A sub-section Blah blah blah

WCAG 1.0 – examples “9. Design for device-independence.” Not all users can / want to use a mouse ● Keyboard ● Voice activation ● Switches ● Headwands Simple test: can your site be used just by keyboard?

WCAG 1.0 – examples “9. Design for device-independence.” ● Check that there's sensible “tab order”

...and a few more things to look out for

Ethical/moral/financial reasons not enough? Most countries now have legal obligations ● UK: Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 Provision of goods and services ● Australia: Disability Discrimination Act 1992 ● USA: Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ● USA: Section 508 of Rehabilitation Act Cases are being brought to court: SOCOG, Target, etc

Political correctness gone mad? “What next? Blind people suing car manufacturers?” ● UK DDA: “reasonable adjustments” ● Situations where there is no reasonable adjustment ● Case by case, not one size fits all

Testing for accessibility ● Automated accessibility checkers (“Bobby” and co.) ● Still require human judgement ● False positives, false negatives ● “Evaluating Web Sites for Accessibility with the Firefox Web Developer Toolbar”

Not just a “compliance” issue ● Not about ticking boxes ● It's about quality of your work ● Web standards + accessibility are expected skills in today's job market

Accessibility not always either/or ● Many situations have different solutions ● Sliding scale of accessibility ● Not a “cookbook” approach, or rote mastery of WCAG

Further information ● W3C Web Accessibility Initiative ● Accessify ● Accessifyforum ● WebAIM: Web Accessibility In Mind

Further information Web Accessibility Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance

Thanks Patrick H. Lauke