Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Setting and Achieving Doable Accessibility Goals


AccessibleWeb@U - May 22, 2014

  • Meet Hadi Rangin
    • Studied computer science at University of Karlsruhe in Network Management
    • Studied Computer Science and human computer interface at Oregon State University
    • Spent last 25 years working on IT accessibility
    • Worked for the past 10 years with University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign
    • Recently hired by UW-IT Accessible Technology
  • Components of web accessibility
    • three components
      • application framework
      • content
      • assistive technology
    • All components must work together to get the job done
    • Accessibility is a chain with interconnected rings/path with many possible barriers
  • Web Accessibility problems we are facing
    • Websites/application developed by our on-campus developers
    • Content created by various entities, departments, or people
    • Third-party applications purchased from various vendors
      • Applications we are using here at the UW do not give positive experiences
  • Problems with publishing content
    • Publishing on the web is very easy
    • People publish content without knowing anything about HTML; they use the technology at their disposal
    • Documents often published as images, inaccessible PDFs, Word, Flash, other proprietary formats
    • Content creators do not have formal training in creating accessible content
      • Accessible design is often not included in the curriculum of college courses
  • Problems with locally developer websites/applications
    • Website/application developers do not have any formal training in universal design
    • Accessibility is not on their radar
    • They do not know about accessibility of the technology they use.
    • Not every developer follows Best Practices
    • Not many developers know how to test for accessibility
      • Do not know which tools to use to test, or how to use them
  • Problems with third-party applications
    • There is no formal accessibility requirement for purchasing a product
    • Administrators/purchasing officers are not aware of accessibility or not comfortable with it
    • VPATS (Volunteer Product Accessibility Template) are misleading and confusing
    • No formal verification of accessibility claims
    • No fully accessible product in the market
  • Accessibility versus usability
    • Most problems we are facing are usability issues
    • Keyboard accessibility, focus management (so you can tell where focus is)
    • Examples
      • Focus location indication often turned off
      • Submitting a form with no confirmation/verification
      • ProctorU (http://www.proctoru.com) provides proctored online testing, but forms do not provide confirmation messages
    • Accessibility is much more than a touch-up or after the fact fix
    • No magic automated testing tool that can fix all problems
    • Accessibility must be considered in design, implementation and quality assessment
    • Accessibility is free if you consider it from the beginning
    • The after-the-fact approach is wishy-washy, incomplete, and too expensive
  • Collective approach
    • Bottom-up approach; begin with you, the people who make the stuff
    • Collaborating with the developers
    • Collaborating with content creators
    • Top-down approach; work with decision makers at the same time
    • Collaborating with administrators and vendors
  • Collaborating with developers
    • UW-IT Accessible Technology is at your disposal
      • Send email to hadir@uw.edu or danc@uw.edu
    • We can meet in person and help with accessibility considerations of your project during its development phases
    • We can help with accessibility of your templates for your content creators
    • We offer a workshop on accessible design
    • We offer workshop on how to test for accessibility including with screen readers
    • Or just meet and explore with Hadi (coffee provided)
    • Goal: To make you all accessibility experts
    • At Illinois, Hadi conducted developer meetings every Tuesday. People could participate online. Do we want a similar series of meeting here at the UW?
  • Collaborating with Instructors, Instructional Designers, and Content Creators
    • Instructional designers have a key role in accessibility of course contents
    • An online course on "Universal Design for Online Learning" will be offered
    • Customized workshops for departments/colleges will be offered
    • We can meet in person and help with accessibility of the course contents (coffee provided)
    • Goal: To have at least one accessibility expert/liaison in each department
  • Collaborating with Administrators/Vendors
    • Accessibility can sometimes be too abstract
    • Awareness is the key; we need to educate them
      • Often think accessibility is something you do after the fact
    • Accessibility is as important as security and personalization
    • Making accessibility part of their agenda is not easy and takes time
    • Demo of accessibility problems with the application are extremely helpful
    • Support of people managing the product is very essential for vendor collaboration
    • Vendors must be asked for accessibility features in the bidding process
    • Vendors claims must be verified by local experts
      • Identify show-stopper issues; must be fixed before deployment
    • No lip service, please
    • We need to collaborate with vendors on enhancing their applications
      • At Illinois, Hadi had ten years of positive response from vendors
    • Goal: Define and agree on minimum Accessibility Requirements especially for high impact applications
    • Goal: Contractual time-lined agreement with vendor to resolve issues
  • Conclusion
    • Accessibility is an approach
    • Depends on many dynamic factors
    • Very impressed with the level of accessibility support at UW
    • I am positive that we collectively can take UW to the next level
    • Let's develop a roadmap we can all agree on?

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