Tag: a11y

Categories
Accessibility Technology

Be the Fireman, Not the Cop

John Foliot @johnfoliot / http://john.foliot.ca

Laying the groundwork for online accessibility success in a large environment.  Boy, this is something I can relate to 🙂

QUOTABLE QUOTE:  “Close only counts with horseshoes and hand grenades.  Perhaps web accessibility compliance should be added to that old saw.”

CURRENT PROBLEMS

  • Lack of accessibility planning / pre-planning
  • Stakeholders already on the defensive
  • Tight deadlines
  • How much does it cost?  No budget allotted
  • Content being developed for the web was never designed with web accessibility in mind
  • Sum Total = Resistance

RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

How does it manifest?  Confrontation, rejection (doesn’t apply to my content), avoidance, insincerity.

FINDING CHAMPIONS

Takes a cultural shift, and requires good communication and communicators.  He read Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point.  From this, he realized that you need to find the “Connectors.”  They know everyone, have done everything, and have the institutional knowledge.  Also need to identify the “Mavens,” who in our case are the hard-core geeks who do the implementation; they’re the early adopters.  Also need “Salesmen” as well, provide boosters, promoters, persuader, helper (enthusiasm).

COMMUNICATION SKILLS (directly from slide)

  • Be likable, and stay positive
  • Connect – find mutual points of interest (be sincere)
  • Solve problems and build trust.  Teamwork starts with you.
  • Create positive experiences and make learning fun! (i.e. – things are challenges, not problems)
  • ID and work with the Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen
ESTABLISHING THE SYSTEMS TO GET YOU THERE
  • Tackling technical challenges, such as using a publishing and tracking system like Drupal, CQ5, etc.
  • Select a tool to track bugs like Bugzilla, Mantis, Trak
  • Use frameworks like jQuery and Dojo
  • Consider custom tools (when necessary).  Example given was Stanford’s caption tool.
  • Look for ways to automate processes to make user’s lives easier
TACKLING TECHNICAL CHALLENGES
  • Evaluation tools (Deque Worldspace, SSB BartAMP, IBM Rational Checker, WAVE).  The reports these tools are kind of like a report card.
TACKLING CULTURAL CHALLENGES
  • Provide detailed expectations of outcomes, not process (don’t tell them HOW it’s going to be done).
  • Set realistic goals
  • Encourage creativity (your users will have some great ideas)
  • Lay out the efforts as challenges, not consequences (tell an engineer you can’t figure out a problem and then walk away)
  • Pursuit of quality:  don’t let perfect be the enemy of good
  • Set timelines and milestones
  • Celebrate successes!
  • Foster empathy and understanding (brown bag events – invite actual users with disabilities)
ADDRESSING FINANCIAL CHALLENGES (directly from slide)
  • It will cost money (you can pay me now, or you can pay me later.  Eventually, you have to pay me)
  • Be honest about what it’ll take
  • Scaled question – the longer you delay, the more it costs
  • Transition towards a team based approach (PM, tech team, Design and UX, Marketing / Content Department
  • Identify bottlenecks for each group independently
ESTABLISHING THE SYSTEMS TO GET YOU THERE (continued)
  • www.w3.org/community/wai-engage/wiki/Accessibiilty_Responsibility_Breakdown
  • Establish training and internal resources
  • Motivation (internal awards, recognition, etc.
  • Document knowledge internally with a wiki or Knowledge Base
  • Be consistent in your implementation
LEGISLATION, POLICY AND BEST PRACTICES
  • Accessibility is a governance issue and a shared responsibility
  • Appeal to pride versus fear (your efforts matter and reflect well on the institution, we’re the best, that sort of thing).  Audience members commented on tying accessibility to something that matters to the organization.  An example of this might be brand.
  • Get some policies in place:  work with existing standards; avoid re-inventing the wheel.  Again, there is no such thing as perfect.
  • Legal threat is heavy-handed and should only be used as a last resort
  • There was some discussion regarding the involvement of lawyers.  My own commentary (not voiced) is that people only hate the lawyers because they make the rules and know ’em well.
MEASURING SUCCESS
  • Avoid the checklist mentality
  • Avoid appearances of concessions and sacrifices
  • Avoid the brick!  (Giant report)
  • More than just a QA process, multiple rounds of accessibility testing
  • Work with milestones, test early, test often
  • Be specific in what you ask for, generous in what you accept
  • Celebrate successes and recognize efforts great and small (this does matter)

 

Categories
Accessibility Technology

Creating an Accessibility Community

PRESENTERS

  • Jennison Asuncion @Jennison
  • Bob Bosken @bbosken
  • John Croston @jfc3
  • Char James-Tanny @CharJTF
  • Kathy Wahlbin @wahlbin

CHAR:  talked a bit about the Boston Accessibility Group.  Creating a community is a lot of voluntary work, so balance and “me time” is important.  Need a team to help out with normal day-to-day operations like updating web site, ordering pizzas, getting guest speakers, etc.

KATHY:  having consistency in when and where meetings occur is important to developing a routine that member / volunteers can get into.  We do monthly meetings on a day that varies, with time constant from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm.  Restaurants tend to be pretty hard, because they’re often very NOISY.  Microsoft “Nerd Center” offers free space, it’s centrally located and next to metro stop and other public transportation.  Our topics tend to vary; ask the group for topics and bring in speakers.  Provide hand-on sessions for key topics such as mobile.

Advertising is important!  Some of the things we’ve done:  Meetup, Nerd Center, Social Media, LinkedIn, collaboration with other groups, and referrals.

JENNISON:  power of meetup are keywords (usability, mobile web, etc) are powerful way to generate interest.

BOB:  we started a Meetup group in February, leveraged an existing network of his and his wife’s (an employee of Nationwide Insurance) in Ohio.  “Any warm body I can get in the room” is a goal.  Used EventBrite to send out notifications.  FB and Twitter generally didn’t generate a lot of local interest; it does lend legitimacy to the event though because it gives people a place to go.  Never underestimate the power of food and refreshments.  Everyone is welcome and has something of value to share…giving a platform to people to share ideas and talk about what they’re doing is a great thing.  We were able to do this on a two-week notice, but providing at least a month is much better to ensure attendance.

JENNISON:  We do this in Toronto area.  We use Twitter and encourage everyone to USE DEM HASHTAGS!  (in particular #a11y).  Hashtags often represent communities, so we’ll use hashtags like #webdevelopment, #webdesign, and so on.  This often results in people accidentally stumbling onto your group…this is a good thing.  LinkedIn is synonymous with “your professional presence online.”  LinkedIn groups provide a good way to have longer focused discussions.  We alternate locations each month, one at a design firm, the other is a networking event held in a restaurant.  We have over 200 members, many of whom are students in CS and usability majors.

Build community where you are.  Be visible in as much as the “mainstream stuff” as you can.

I’m involved in the WAI engage group, which is trying to get design / development community engaged with the WAI.

There’s a danger in using social media:  these people tend to be advanced users and geeks.  Don’t forget the other means of communications: list serves, forums and discussion groups, face-to-face meetings, etc.  We need to go to where the high-tech and mainstream communities live; cross-promote wherever possible.  DON’T SCARE OFF PEOPLE WHO WANT TO GET INVOLVED BY BEING OVERLY CRITICAL.

JOHN:  attends WordPress meetups.  Asks people who attend his meetups “what other groups are you involved with?”  He talked briefly about a group he’s been involved with called “DC Night Owls.”  He often provides practical advice about how to do things like make a web form accessible.  Jennison gave a talk at one about how he buys tickets on AirCanada; once had folks give demos of JAWS and Dragon (in the same room, << gasp >>); how to improve WordPress.

Organize annual events!  Have a team to share the work, have flexible dates until the location is confirmed, work on publicity, have a theme, what structure will the event take (full unconference, partial unconference, no unconference).  JENNISON mentioned that his primary audiences are locals and beginners.

CHAR and KATHY on unconferences:  it’s very important to have specific topics.  This helps generate commitment to attend among your people.  Some mechanisms to generate topics:

  • Create a Wiki
  • Use a poll
  • “Winging it” works sometimes
  • Have a misc theme, just in case your primary topics don’t resonate with some

Sometimes it helps to institute a small charge to ensure attendance, think about dietary considerations, but don’t overdo the food angle (can be over thought).  For food, leverage your team, it’s often the forte of someone already on the team.