1. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Accessibility Testing Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath Bath, BA2 7AY Email B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk URL http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ UKOLN is supported by:

2. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Session Aims The aims of this session are: To gain hands-on experience of tools which can be used for checking accessibility To reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of the tools To help to identify a strategy for accessibility testing

3. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Hands-On Exercises You should now: Work through the exercises in the handout Work in pairs and discuss your findings Bookmark as this contains links to the resources in the handout E

4. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Discussion Have you come across anything new? Have any of the findings surprised you? What are the strengths of the tools you have used? What are the weaknesses of the tools you have used? How should you go about setting up a systematic approach for ensuring accessibility?

5. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Visual Inspection Visual inspections of Web sites: Did you notice any problems? What are the advantages of visual inspections? What are the disadvantages? Exercise 1 What did you think of the Royal Mail Access pages?

6. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Browser Settings How usable is the Web site if images are disabled; JavaScript disabled, …? Blind users will only process textual information Web robots will only process textual information JavaScript support may not be available … Exercise 2 Did you notice any problems?

7. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Accessibility Checking Tools Various tools are available: Bobby WAVE … Note: Errors on Royal Mail access site Bobby won't spot all errors (manual testing also needed) Are all errors of concern? Exercise 3 Did you notice any problems?

8. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Web Site Quality If: Links are broken Invalid HTML used Invalid CSS used … the Web site may not be usable by anyone Exercise 4 Did you encounter any problems?

9. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Enhanced Interfaces URI Interface: Easy to implement Integrated with browser Easy to maintain Bookmarklets: Many tools available Need to be installed on individual browsers Exercise 5 Are such approaches of interest to you?

10. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Embedding QA Quality Assurance: Addressing underlying causes of problems Relies on: Documented policies Systematic compliance checking QA Focus: Funded by JISC to provide a QA framework and support infrastructure for JISC's digital library programmes See Exercise 6 How would you go about embedding QA in your working practices?

11. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Need For Documented Policies There is a need for documented policies: "We're WAI AAA compliant fully" "We seek to comply with best practices for usability and accessibility …" "Accessibility for 3D visualisation e-learning is expensive. We will provide equivalent real-world learning experiences …" (cf. we can provide Braille to those who need it) Need for procedures to monitor compliance with policies: "We test our Web site with Bobby " "We carry out structured usability & accessibility tests for new services we develop / services we procure …"

12. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Questions