Fwd: ACM SIGACCESS ASSETS 2013 - Web Accessibility Roundtable

Results of a Microsoft Research ASSETS Roundtable - might be interesting...


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	ACM SIGACCESS ASSETS 2013 - Web Accessibility Roundtable
Date: 	Wed, 23 Oct 2013 15:25:59 +0000
From: 	Richard B. Ells <rells@uw.edu>


Web accessibility — October 22, 2013

Participants: Mike Shebanek, Thea van de Geest, Donsong Zhang, Simon
Harper, Redhwan Nour, Silvia Rodriguez, Awaia Aizpurva, Eric Velleman,
Matt Huenerfauth, Rachel Menzies, Rick Ells

  * How to build guidelines compliance at a university
      o Hard to get consistency and compliance in decentralized
        institutions, like universities
          + Different organizations, schools, individuals create sites
              # Have varying degrees of knowledge
              # Existing websites are not designed with accessibility in
                mind. What do you do with them?
      o Mobile design is a good motivator
          + Gets you a long way toward accessible code
          + Accessibility can be a bigger issue on mobile than desktop
          + Aggressive mobile first content editing simplifies and
            focuses the content making it easier to follow guidelines in
            content
          + Having responsive pages that work across a broad range of
            devices requires careful management of methods
              # Hover mode does not work on mobiles
              # Pop-ups not good for accessibility
      o Conduct web accessibility audits to identify problems
          + Give awards for "most accessible sites"
      o Make the business case for accessibility and inclusiveness for
        your institution
      o Develop widgets to automate create accessible code, such as for
        forms
      o Training
          + Creating Accessible Web Content video from Carleton
            University explains steps for a content maintainer to take
            to make their content accessible within a WordPress site
            (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5N57Kwjx9s)
          + Provide sample code that is easily copied
      o Focusing on appropriate methods and technologies
          + Hard to do at a university. Dispersed, decentralized management
          + Accessibility is a mind-set, develop the mind-set and they
            will tend to use the right methods
          + OSs have many accessibility tools such as VoiceOver. Teach
            developers about those tools and they will begin to use them
            to evaluate their work.
      o Legal pressure may result in grudging participation
          + When you do audits, you wonder how mcuh people really read
            the reports
      o Getting high level support and approval is essential
          + University of Washington President Michael Young just gave
            his annual address in which he said that Accessibility is
            one of the four pillars on which to build the future of the
            University (http://uwtv.org/watch/54781507847/)
  * Accessible design should include user testing, user interface
    design, user interaction analysis
      o Guidelines should include user testing to prove that your
        product works for real people
      o 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act

(http://www.nad.org/issues/civil-rights/communications-act/21st-century-act)
        requires user testing
      o Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Usability
        Testing by Steve Krug
  * WAI WCAG 2.0 guidelines are difficult to explain
    (http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php)
      o Guidelines have principles and success criteria
      o How do you know which guidelines apply in a particular situation
      o Very hard for many people to understand
      o How do you know if a site is beautiful — you don't; you have to
        ask someone. Same thing goes for accessibility
      o Developers have to know what it is about before and while they
        are doing their work. Once the site is built it is too late.
          + Not everybody needs to know all criteria
              # Theme developers address page structure and navigation
                issues
              # Content maintainers address content structure, element
                types, etc.
  * Links to topics that were discussed
      o Latest internal version of W3C
        WG http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/methodology/
      o Essential components of web
        accessibility http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/components.php
      o How people with disabilities use the
        web http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/people-use-web/
      o Easy checks - a first review of web
        accessibility http://www.w3.org/WAI/eval/preliminary
      o How to involve users in web accessibility
        evaluation http://www.w3.org/WAI/eval/users
      o Knowledgebase about accessibility of web, self service terminals
        and digital television - EU project
        results http://hub.eaccessplus.eu/wiki/Main_Page
      o Accessible jQuery-ui Components
        Demonstration http://access.aol.com/aegis/#goto_carousel
      o EU directive on the accessibility of public sector bodies

websiteshttp://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/news/proposal-directive-european-parliament-and-council-accessibility-public-sector-bodies-websites
      o UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities
        (UNCRPD) http://www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id=150


-- 
Si.

PS I check my email at 08:00 and 17:00 GMT. If you require a faster
response please include the word 'fast' in the subject line.

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*I'll be away*:
ACM ASSETS 	Limited Comms 	21 Oct 2013 to 25 Oct 2013

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Simon Harper
My Business Card <http://simon.harper.name/about/card/>
Schedule a Meeting <http://doodle.com/simon.harper.name>
OpenID <https://sharpic.myopenid.com/>

University of Manchester (UK)
Web Ergonomics Lab <http://wel.cs.manchester.ac.uk>
Information Management Group

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Received on Tuesday, 29 October 2013 09:03:44 UTC