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?