1 AccessMonkey A scripting framework for improving web accessibility Jeremy Brudvik Jessica Leung

2 Web Accessibility Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the Web [1] Making sites efficiently usable for people with disabilities. We are primarily concerned with web accessibility for blind people. [1] “Web Accessibility Initiative”

3 Blind people and computers “Blind” isn’t defined equivalently in all contexts We focus on people who use screen readers Output Screen readers Converts visual information to linear display Voiced visual content Refreshable Braille displays Input Keyboard (Virtually) No mouse

4 Web Accessibility Problems Images Layout Tables Dynamic content Mixing content and visual presentation Poorly-named links Flash, other multimedia

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10 /olc/pub/YALE/oldintro/oldintro.cgi Update Address

11 /olc/pub/YALE/oldintro/oldintro.cgi Update Address

12 Why should people care? Laws Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act Lawsuits NFB v. Target (2006) Maguire v. SOCOG (1999) Accessible websites have other benefits Likely easier for sighted users to navigate Search engines In United States, 1.3 million legally blind people, and approx. 10 million visually impaired people [2] [2] American Foundation for the Blind: Blindness Statisticshttp://

13 Why aren’t sites accessible? People make uninformed decisions Many developers don't think about blind people Old technologies are still used, despite advances Web design tools don’t always produce accessible content Easy to incorporate accessibility from the beginning, difficult to redesign existing site Browser compliance

14 Outline Accessmonkey Evaluation of Website Accessibility NFB Youth Slam

15 Outline Accessmonkey Evaluation of Website Accessibility NFB Youth Slam

16 What are we doing? Accessmonkey: A scripting framework for improving web accessibility

17 Accessible Content Production

18 Accessmonkey Inspired by Greasemonkey Greasemonkey allows users to modify web pages Accessmonkey Users modify pages without coding Users share their improvements Developers save users’ modifications Accessmonkey

19 Accessmonkey: Issues Security Restrict the power of most user-submitted scripts Allow unrestricted scripts after peer review Deployment User Base Scripts Multi-platform Firefox Internet Explorer UI design

20 Accessmonkey: Progress Met with blind people to discuss issues Created suggestion form for website improvements Specific page scripts Association of Yale Alumni (AYA) MyUW Amazon General scripts Assign alt texts Label headers

21 OriginalModified AYA - Images Enabled

22 AYA - Images Disabled OriginalModified

23 …… OriginalModified MyUW - Styles Enabled

24 OriginalModified MyUW - Styles Disabled ……

25 OriginalModified MyUW - Styles Disabled ……

26 OriginalModified MyUW - Styles Disabled ……

27 YouTube

28 YouTube - Headers labeled

29 Outline Accessmonkey Evaluation of Website Accessibility NFB Youth Slam

30 Evaluation of Accessibility Existing Tools Accessibility difficult to measure Subjective and not quantifiable Difficult to suggest specific improvements What we can do is look at alt (alternative) text General indicator of how the site is doing overall Very specific and simple to implement

31 Evaluation of CRA

32 Outline Accessmonkey Evaluation of Website Accessibility NFB Youth Slam

33 NFB Youth Slam (National Federation of the Blind) 1-week camp for blind high school students in Baltimore, MD Taught students how to program instant messenger chatbots “Engage and inspire the next generation of blind youth to consider careers falsely believed be impossible for blind people to enter.” [3] [3]

34 NFB Youth Slam Team Exhibit Hall In the Lab

35 Acknowledgements SURP NASA Space Grant Professor Richard Ladner Jeffrey Bigham Maxwell Aller

37 Web Studies: All Images != Significant images need alternative text alt HTML attribute Insignificant images need empty alt text Decorative or structural <img src=“graph.gif” alt=“annual growth: 1982 to 2004”>

38 Prioritization of Problems Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0 Identifies accessibility checkpoints for web developers Separates checkpoints into 3 priorities Priority 1 must be implemented, otherwise inaccessible Priorities 2 and 3 are important for efficiency