TM Accessibility for the Uninitiated Presented by: September 2008

TM Who we are  Leading user experience consultancy  Offices in Edinburgh & London  Our services  Usability testing  Eye tracking  Testing with disabled users  Expert evaluations  Accessibility reviews  Focus groups  Usability and accessibility training  Clients: DTI, Economist.com, Houses of Parliament, Emirates Airline, RBS, ACAS & many more  My background  System Testing  Web development  Accessibility Consultant

TM Who are the uninitiated?  For the past year we have been working with a major UK company.  Providing training on usability and accessibility  Intranet site administrators  Generally no awareness of usability or accessibility  Intranet page designs varied wildly  No standard adopted  Limited accessibility functionality in the CMS used.

TM Background  Major UK Utility Supplier  2,500+ Site administrators  Little or no usability or accessibility training  Very few with experience in website construction  Limited interest in site administration  Not their main role  Want to add/edit information then return to main job.  All users of existing intranet  All find the intranet a frustrating experience from a usability perspective.

TM Main challenges  Content Management weaknesses  Little interest in usability and even less in accessibility:  After lunch session. “The Graveyard Shift”.  No clear understanding of what accessibility is.  Unable to grasp how disabled people use web  Blind people probably the easiest to imagine.  Had no experience of disabled people using assistive technology in their departments.  HR would not provide us with details of how many disabled users employed.  Little understanding of (or legal responsibility for) compliance.  Technical limitations – e.g. cannot install assistive software on locked down computers.

TM Content Management System  Content management system has limitations:-  Produces invalid markup  Inline tags and fixed sizes  Incorrectly nested headings (start at )  Use of table based layouts  Use of JavaScript based concertina menus  Damage limitation exercise  Identify which available structural elements not being used correctly  Link naming – eliminate ‘click here’  Nested tables  Correctly nesting what headings are available

TM Content Management Systems (in general)  Notorious for producing inaccessible markup.  As a result, can be impossible to implement accessible page content.  Training site administrators is ineffective if we do not train the developers who build and maintain the CMS.  In-house CMS tools often less accessible than off the shelf:-  Large number of developers  Inconsistency in design, functionality

TM Disabilities  It is critical that users understand not only the disabilities affected but also:-  The differences in users needs  The different way that users navigate  Keyboard only  Alternative input devices  Less obvious effects of particular disabilities  Memory issues  Navigation restraints  Inaccessible accessibility

TM Raising interest  Images of assistive technology  Demonstrations of assistive technology  JAWS screen reader in 40 minute mode  Screen magnification  Page customisations  Browser controls  Video footage of disabled users using the web.  More straightforward:-  Get participants to try and browse their pages without a mouse.  Anecdotes from disabled testing.

TM Raising interest (2)  Hands on analysis of their own pages  Pointing out accessibility issues  Explaining how these issues affect disabled users  Mini-audit  Use tools such as Colour Contrast Analyser to show how site would look to colour blind users.  Provide video clips without sound and afterwards ask participants to provide details of what took place in the video.  Difficult without dialogue or transcript.

TM Impact  Demonstration of a disabled user accessing the intranet generally has most impact  Most participants will not have witnessed disabled user accessing the web.  Many companies won’t disclose details of disabled staff.  JAWS in 40 minute mode  Use screen reader to access pages.  Responses are generally quite dramatic.

TM Summary  Awareness of accessibility issues was low amongst content contributors.  Required to tailor the course to cover only what the could do using the CMS.  Acceptance that intranet sites won’t become fully accessible overnight.  Interactive demonstrations of assistive software very popular although not always technically practical.

TM Thank You User Vision 55 North Castle Street Edinburgh EH2 3QA Tel: Web: