Re: New O'Reilly book on Context

We do this in IBM products. It is about preserving context. This practice
goes as far back as 1992-93. This is really important when operating menu
bars.

Dialogs: It was a common error early on to forget to provide keyboard focus
within a dialog box when it is activated. Screen Readers track focus, walk
the parent chain until the get to a significant context (in this case the
dialog box frame) and recursively enumerate children to communicate with
them.

So, not only do you need this information to determine where you are within
a context but you need it so that an AT can build the context you reside
in.

Rich


Rich Schwerdtfeger



From: Anthony Doran <t.doran@texthelp.com>
To: Steve Lee <steve@opendirective.com>
Cc: Richard Schwerdtfeger/Austin/IBM@IBMUS,
            public-cognitive-a11y-tf <public-cognitive-a11y-tf@w3.org>
Date: 01/19/2015 04:22 AM
Subject: Re: New O'Reilly book on Context



Hey Steve,

 I am not aware of any research on these guidelines - but there are
specific sections for accessibility in there, with themes consistent
with a lot of things we have been discussing:

http://www.google.co.uk/design/spec/usability/accessibility.html#accessibility-navigation



"Are you sure that your user and their focus never get lost when
navigating between dropdowns, alerts and various screens? Think about
how users will return to a screen after closing a dropdown window.
Make sure that their focus will return to where it was before the
dropdown opened."

This is what rang a bell with me re: context, memory etc - we have
discussed the difficulty of retaining memory of where you are, what
you are doing when switching screens, dialogs. I remembered something
relevant in the material design spec. There are also good
recommendations for contrast, apps working well with bigger fonts,
visual alternatives/additions to vibration/sound alerts, alt texts for
video and images, labelled controls/buttons etc.

While I'm not aware of any research on these specific guidelines they
are pushing for a lot of commonly accepted good practise bits and
bobs. As someone in industry for a while now I was concerned - I've
seen a shift away from Windows, a platform proliferation. Windows for
all its faults does/facilitates/supports accessibility pretty well by
now. It's good to see some focus here from Google.

Thanks, Tony



On 18 January 2015 at 20:00, Steve Lee <steve@opendirective.com> wrote:
> Anthony,
>
> Thanks for the info on material design as I've been meaning to explore it
> for some time now , especially as Polymer brings it to the wider web. I
had
> thought it a pretty basic "themeing" however it seems like many newer
> designs using a flat look it throws away afordances that make possible
> interaction clear to the user when looking at a screen object. Instead,
they
> replace it with animations that give feedback, but only once you figure
out
> you can interact,
>
> Is there any research on this style of UI for coga11y? Either in general
or
> for specific preferences?
>
> PS I do like the material design as used in the new Google Android
calendar.
> It's clean a fresh looking and easy enough to use.
>
>
> Steve Lee
> OpenDirective http://opendirective.com

>
> On 8 January 2015 at 16:04, Anthony Doran <t.doran@texthelp.com> wrote:
>>
>> This is oddly relevant to some things we are looking at as an
>> organisation, across our
>> apps/programs/software/tools/WhateverWeAreCallingItToday. The rise of
the
>> prevalence of material design, the desire to unify the UX across
platforms
>> to provide a consistent experience, remove ambiguity and improve the
>> intuitiveness of products. It is all good stuff. People need to take
design
>> seriously from get go. So much software with great potential is hobbled
by
>> badly designed, bolted on UI leading to a horrible UX.
>>
>> This is interesting reading too:
>>
>> http://www.google.co.uk/design/spec/material-design/introduction.html

>>
>> On 8 January 2015 at 15:39, Richard Schwerdtfeger <schwer@us.ibm.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Thank you Steve. I will order it.
>>>
>>>
>>> Rich Schwerdtfeger
>>>
>>> Steve Lee ---01/08/2015 04:41:37 AM--->From the TOC this would appear
to
>>> have much of relevance to coga11y http://shop.oreilly.com/product

>>>
>>> From: Steve Lee <steve@opendirective.com>
>>> To: public-cognitive-a11y-tf <public-cognitive-a11y-tf@w3.org>
>>> Date: 01/08/2015 04:41 AM
>>> Subject: New O'Reilly book on Context
>>>
>>> ________________________________
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> >From the TOC this would appear to have much of relevance to coga11y
>>>
>>>
>>>
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920024651.do?imm_mid=0ca469&cmp=em-web-na-na-newsltr_20150107


>>>
>>> To make sense of the world, we’re always trying to place things in
>>> context, whether our environment is physical, cultural, or something
>>> else altogether. Now that we live among digital, always-networked
>>> products, apps, and places, context is more complicated than
>>> ever—starting with "where" and "who" we are.
>>>
>>> This practical, insightful book provides a powerful toolset to help
>>> information architects, UX professionals, and web and app designers
>>> understand and solve the many challenges of contextual ambiguity in
>>> the products and services they create. You’ll discover not only how to
>>> design for a given context, but also how design participates in making
>>> context.
>>>
>>> * Learn how people perceive context when touching and navigating
>>> digital environments
>>> * See how labels, relationships, and rules work as building blocks for
>>> context
>>> * Find out how to make better sense of cross-channel, multi-device
>>> products or services
>>> * Discover how language creates infrastructure in organizations,
>>> software, and the Internet of Things
>>> * Learn models for figuring out the contextual angles of any user
>>> experience
>>>
>>> Steve Lee
>>>
>>>
>>> Steve Lee
>>> OpenDirective http://opendirective.com

>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Anthony (Tony) Doran
>> BrowseAloud Product Manager
>> Texthelp Ltd.
>> Lucas Exchange,
>> 1 Orchard Way
>> Greystone Road
>> Antrim
>> BT41 2RU
>>
>> --
>> Texthelp Ltd is a limited company registered in Belfast, N. Ireland with
>> registration number NI31186 having its registered office and principal
place
>> of business at Lucas Exchange, 1 Orchard Way, Antrim, N. Ireland, BT41
2RU.
>
>



--
Anthony (Tony) Doran
BrowseAloud Product Manager
Texthelp Ltd.
Lucas Exchange,
1 Orchard Way
Greystone Road
Antrim
BT41 2RU

--
--
Texthelp Ltd is a limited company registered in Belfast, N. Ireland with
registration number NI31186 having its registered office and principal
place of business at Lucas Exchange, 1 Orchard Way, Antrim, N. Ireland,
BT41 2RU.