October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC2007 Building Communication With Access for All Richard B. Ells Senior Webmaster University of Washington

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007 Introduction The Web is a fundamental means of communication and service for all of us. We want our Web pages and applications to work for anyone interest in them, including people with handicaps. This goal can be achieved by careful attention to standards and by awareness of alternative experiences of interaction with what we create.

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007 Explosion … in hardware capabilities … in software complexity, capabilities … in access devices, including assistive technologies … in rich media, interactive applications … in uses for the Web … in reliance on the Web and Internet in conducting business and delivering services

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007 What is Accessibility? Accessibility is the degree to which a Web site or service is available to and usable by a person with a disability. If they can successfully meet their needs in coming to the site, the site is accessible.

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007 Why Care About Accessibility? Compliance with the law Keeping talent Serving your clientele A waiting market Because you care A sound technical approach

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007 Why Care: Compliance With the Law Government, education, and public institutions Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act requires Federal sites be accessible Used by many states W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Framework for many laws in Europe Courts may find private Web sites are a “public accommodation” covered by 508 as they become more essential to the delivery of public services

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007 Why Care: Keeping Talent Important parts of our workforce are aging Selecting inaccessible software could force capable people out of their roles Poorly considered design changes can make a needed Web site or service suddenly unusable A valued employee developing a common disability could be prevented from continuing their career

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007 Why Care: Serving Your Clientele Many institutions by definition serve people with disabilities Education Social services Banks and other financial services Government

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007 Why Care: A Waiting Market About 12% of people between 16 and 24 have some form of disability (21 million people) Aging segments of the population develop limitations and impairments that can be addressed with software, if the services they want to use are designed to interact well with such software

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007 Why Care: Because You Care Consideration and inclusion of people differently-abled than the norm is a positive and necessary value for many institutions Including the disabled yields benefits Gives richness to the enterprise Depth to learning and team experiences Remind us of the breadth of human experience and ability

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007 Why Care: A Sound Technical Approach Technical methods for supporting adaptive and assistive technologies are the same as those used to ensure support of a wide range of access devices By doing professional quality Web management, you are already doing much of which is included in accessible Web design

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007 Disabilities Cognitive impairment Dyslexia Physical impairment Limited dexterity Sensory impairment Blind Deaf

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007 Disabilities: Cognitive disabilities Dyslexia, learning disabilities, hyperactivity Supporting the person’s interaction with content Software that speaks highlighted text Search that suggests alternative spellings

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007 Disabilities: Physical Impairment Poor motor control Keyboard navigable user interface design (fully functional without using the mouse) Specialized keyboards and pointing devices Sip and puff

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007 Disabilities: Sensory Impairment Low contrast vision, color blindness, blind, deaf Text to voice conversion Tactile interface Selected colors Alternative stylesheet Alternative texts for graphics Transcripts provided for audio

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007 How AT Works Programs Adaptive Technology API Web sites Static Dynamic Interactive Dynamic (AJAX)

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007 How AT Works: Programs Aspects of Accessibility APIs Standardized roles for interface divisions Standardized properties for elements Focus management Interaction model Device navigation mappings Semantics interpretation Change notification

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007 How AT Works: Web Pages Standards-based Semantic markup Alternative text for non-text objects Association Tables Forms

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007 How AT Works: Web Pages Early AT simply scrapped text Current AT can read the HTML or DOM Utilizes semantic text element types such as headers Generally page by page Current AT has difficulty with dynamically updated page content Hard to track where and when changes occur

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007 Web Technology Improvements Device Independence Standardization HTML/XHTML DOM Scripting Adaptive Technology Rich Media

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007 How AT Works: Simple HTML

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007 How AT Works: HTML And Javascript

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007 How AT Works: HTML and AJAX

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007 How AT Works: Supporting AJAX Accessible Rich Internet Application (ARIA) Developed cooperatively by W3C Added functionality to support interactive dynamic Web pages Roles Focus management State

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007 Achieving Accessibility Organization priority Build understanding of accessibility across the organization Provide development frameworks that support accessible design Build accessibility evaluation skills

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007 Arguments Ship now, fix later The product we use does not do accessibility Agile development (80/20) If so few people have disabilities, don’t their needs fall in the 20% that agile development says are optional? Utilitarianism Greatest good for the greatest number Jeremy Bentham, the philosopher who defined utilitarianism, disavowed the “greatest number part” “The dictates of utility are neither more nor less than the dictates of the most extensive and enlightened benevolence.” Jeremy Bentham

October 2, 2007IEEE IPCC 2007