Tag: accessibility

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Accessibility Technology

CSS, Accessibility and You

Presenter:  Derek Featherstone from Simply Accessible Inc., @feather | #a11yCSS | Derek’s slides on slideshare

This is the first presentation I attended on Thursday, March 5 at the #CSUN15 conference.  I’ve attended a few of Derek’s presentations in the past and am looking forward to this one.  I hope he covers some of the more advanced CSS topics that have come to the forefront of web design in the last couple years.  I’m nursing a nasty headache I woke up with, so I hope my notes are up-to-snuff!  Bear with me, please.

Started with a photo of a shower tap at a British hotel he stayed in.  Both knobs are red.  There was a text description showing that the left tap operates the shower, right tap operates the bath (six feet away).  LESSON:  group closely related items; the “principle of proximity.”

Principle of proximity has a huge impact on people with disabilities

  • Accessibility does not just mean “screen reader,” although many people think this
  • Multi-column layouts make using an interface very challenging for someone with low vision.
  • Demonstration of a TSA web page through a “virtual straw.” The audience was invited to close one eye, and hold one hand in front of their open eye to approximate low vision.  The page was very difficult to read – it had to be scanned.  AND YET, the page meets every WCAG success criteria for a screen reader.
  • A redesigned single-column version of this same page was significantly easier to view and was also much better for mobile.
  • All of this is made possible via CSS.  While HTML is critical to everything we do with accessibility, the impact of CSS is equally profound.
  • SOLUTION:  use the straw test to find layout and design challenges for people with low vision.  It will change the way you view design.
  • We need to design for a whole range of accessibility use cases:  blind, low-vision, hearing, mobility/dexterity (fine motor control, low-strength, single-handedness), cognitive (attention, memory-related, literacy, routines/predictability), vestibular issues (animated navigation elements can make some people dizzy, like the room spinning when you’re laying on your bed drunk), speech

3 Types of Relationships

  • sateach.es/3-rel – all the detail is in this article
  • Explicit:  example – tying labels to form fields programmatically
  • Implicit:  example – text labels next to or below form fields
  • Content-based relationships:  example – form entry error messages that appear at the top of a page

Screen Reader Compatible Does NOT Equal Accessible

As a developer, I started

Background images over-used and abused

  • Example:  flip cards (duplicate call to action links – i.e. “flip”)
  • Solution:  changed the link details, which made it easier for screen reader users, but NOT voice recognition software.
  • Two primary mantras in voice recognition software are:  Dictation, Command-and-Control
  • Recommended changing to “Flip to see details for xyz product”

Call to action alt-text is critical…

  • …especially when using CSS sprites. Start using SVG instead of sprites.
  • Alt text that reflects the call to action.  Image and text alternative in the same layer.  USE SVG
  • Background images:  Best Buy web site, switched to “high contrast mode,” background images disappear
  • Bing maps example:  search icon in search field disappears
  • JQuery drop-down menu example
  •  When CSS background images are off, what content functionality or affordances are missing?
  • New feature in IE11 for targeting high-contrast mode

 

Categories
Accessibility Technology

Aiming for Excellence: Accessibility at a Fortune 50 Company

Presenter:  Toby Erickson from Target (target.com and global)

This is the sixth and last presentation I attended on Wednesday, March 4 at the #CSUN15 conference.  Pretty much everyone in the accessibility space is aware of the Target case from several years ago, but I’m willing to bet that – like me – not everyone knows how they’ve worked accessibility into their workflows.  Let’s find out, shall we?

This is Toby’s third CSUN conference.

We have a backlog of stories to share…

Quick Facts

  • 1,790 US retail stores, 366,000 employees, omni-channel guest experience
  • Fourth most-visited retails web site in the US
  • 26 million unique visitors each month
  • Mobile is 60% of Target.com traffic
  • Cartwheel app added 2 million new users over the holiday period, surpassed $1 billion in promotional sales

Aiming for Excellence

  • Used biathlete competition as a metaphor for the work done
  • Compliance:  Target and the NFB
  • WCAG AA was the target standard
  • Controls & Monitoring:  GRC model (governance, risk management, compliance).  At the time, we were a waterfall shop.
  • a11y Authority and Prioritization:  found many issues from release to release and we had a real challenge with our partners.
  • Issue severity & launch criteria:  we use Jira to capture information in detail for our team.

Lap 1: Hits

  • Identifying issues and how to fix
  • Engaging the dev and Release management organization
  • Authority through GRC

Lap 1: Misses

  • Need to engage earlier in the process
  • Reduce defects and resulting churn
  • Improving partnerships focused on solutions

Lap 2: Customers and Compliance

  • Commitment to our customers:  better testing and identifying what our objectives were to make the experience for our customers easier and better.
  • Proactive engagement:  feasibility and planning.  Here’s what the waterfall concept looked like:  Concept Review > Design Review > DEV Review > QA/a11y Review.
  • We also had to work with vendors and third party agreements via contract agreements that were enforceable (i.e. Master Service Agreements).
  • Partner in innovation.  Risk in GRC can be a way to prevent innovation, and we wanted to avoid that.
  • Shared a Fall Style Campaign Concept with a theatrical video starring Kristen Bell that would allow clothing and accessories purchasable through the player that displayed the episodes.  The player contained a vertical carousel containing products.  Question:  who did the audio descriptions?  They were done by CaptionMax.

Lap 2:  Hits

  • Awareness training identified new champions
  • Grassroots success with motivating partners
  • UX partnership leverages usability
  • Team seen as partners in solutions, not limitations on innovation
  • Ready for organizational change!

Lap 2:  Misses

  • Need to distribute accountability even further (need to embed this deeply into processes)
  • Need to prioritize efforts to focus on greatest guest impact
  • Look further ahead and think strategically

Break in the action

  • 18 Strong
  • Diversity of experience & influence
  • Shared the members of the Target Accessibility Team

Lap 3:  Vision and Shared Goals

  • Vision & Mission Statement:  we want to be a leader, committed to quality digital experiences (Toby read the actual mission statement, which was quite a bit longer)
  • Team Positioning and Roles:  reorganizations are fact of life, I’ve seen a few of them at Target and I’ve only been here for three years.  We needed to shed our testing baggage, so we changed our team name to the accessibility team.
  • Corporate Purpose & Beliefs:  this process helped to shape our brand position in a big way; there was a direct connection between accessibility and  (Toby read the actual purpose and beliefs statement, which was quite a bit longer)

Lap 3: Hits

  • Vision and Mission set as north tar
  • Senior leadership support
  • Delivering on business goals

Lap 3: Misses

  • Prioritizing our strategic work
  • Procedures needed to make teams successful

Lap 4: Initiatives

  • Identifying Key Initiatives:  patterns we can inculcated in all individuals, testing, training, communications (like we’re doing here)
  • Procedures that engage the team:  accountability, documentation.  Describe what accessibility means at Target, using criteria integrating WCAG and Target-specific guest experience, weekly meetings to develop procedures; writing and organizing for diverse teams.  Question:  how did you scale the team up?  We evolved the team as we went.  We wanted these procedures completed quickly, but revisited.  Shared the color and color contrast procedure, error messaging process.  Example:  logos must follow this procedure when they are:  created by or for Target, and are Target’s IP, and promote, advertise, involve, or are associated with Target’s products, services, experiences or campaigns.
  • Agility required: we implemented an agile process.

Lap 4:  Hits

  • Engaged and inspired team
  • Engaged and inspired partners
  • Improved overall performance
  • Reduced accessibility issues by 85%

Lap 4: Misses

  • None for this lap!

Lap 5?

  • Knowing long-term goals
  • Know how you’re going to make it by making a plan!
  • Keep at it
Categories
Accessibility Technology

Real-Time Conversations: From TTY to Real-Time Text (RTT)

Presenter:  Aaron Bangor, Lead Accessible Technology Architect, AT&T Corporate Accessibility Technology Office

aaron_bangor@labs.att.com

This is the fifth presentation I attended on Wednesday, March 4 at the #CSUN15 conference.  I’m slowly getting worn down here :-/  I’m personally interested in this session because of some recent development efforts me and my development team at CSUN have had with our National Center On Deafness (NCOD).  Not exactly sure what AT&T has on tap here, I hope it’s relevant.

Where are we with making voice communications accessible to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community?

  • Voice communications used to go through the phone network (POTS – Plain Old Telephone Service), but the underlying circuit switching really has not changes much.  Now it mostly goes through the Internet, but the need to communicate in real-time among individuals has not changed
  • In the mid-1960s, the then-old teletype machine was adapted to create the TeleTypewriter (TTY)
  • TTY’s purpose is to provide non-voice service (aka data) over a phone line.
  • Reviewed the basics of a TTY call, including some info on how TTY work over cellular networks now.
  • 1,400 Hz and 1,800Hz tones can carry text.

Benefits and Drawbacks

  • Works well for people with hearing and speech disabilities
  • Interoperable
  • Text-based
  • Real-time
  • Interactive
  • Intermixed with voice channel
  • BUT…it’s slow
  • Turn-based/half-duplex
  • Resource intensive from a network resource perspective
  • Dedicated network resource needed for wireless
  • Requires separate assistive technology not commonly used by telephone customers without disabilities

 TTY is not

  • Instant messaging
  • Email
  • Over-the-top messaging (WhatsApp, Kik, etc.)
  • Video conferencing
  • Text messaging (SMS)
  • These are all services that can – and are – being used to communicate instead of using a TTY on a voice call

 TTY Meets the Internet Protocol

  • TTY tends to work best on a wired connection with QoS, not so great when using lossy codecs
  • There are challenges to doing this (like there was going from Standard Definition to High Definition TV)
  • Packet loss, Echo Cancellation, voice-optimized compression techniques

What is Real-Time Text, Benefits and Drawbacks

  • IP/Data, not voice
  • Lightweight
  • Less sensitive to packet loss
  • Standards-based
  • Conversational, real-time
  • BUT…it has limited adoption to date (mostly Northern Europe, not directly interoperable with legacy TTYs (internetworking function needed)

RTT is where we’re headed

  • Endorsed / recommended by many areas
  • FCC Emergency Access Advisory Committee (EAAC)
  • National Emergency Number Association (NENA); next-gen 911
  • US Access Board’s information and communication technology (ICT) standards and guidelines
  • RTT is an accessible technology that does not require a 3rd party piece of hardware to work

Are we there yet?  Not Really…

  • Much work needs to be done to build a robust, accessible service that also does not leave anyone behind
  • Network changes required to support RTT
  • Interoperability between RTT implementations (standards-based)
  • Software changes for IP phones and wireless handsets
  • Changes to ensure legacy TTY internetworking; network gateways between IP and legacy networks
  • Points of connection between legacy equipment and VoIP networks

Final Thoughts

  • TTY was a great engineering solution in its day, but it was designed for a type of technology that is disappearing
  • RTT is more user-friendly
  • Takes advantage of newer network technologies
  • Builds accessibility into the service, not requiring separate equipment
  • Opens up possibilities for all users to interact over the “phone” in more creative and expressive ways because it will be built into phones, not via separate hardware
  • It is the essence of Universal Design

 

 

Categories
Accessibility Technology

Do We Need to Change the Web Accessibility Game Plan (Redux)?

Presenters:

Trend this hashtag, people!  #GamePlan2015

This is the fourth presentation I attended on Wednesday, March 4 at the #CSUN15 conference.  A cast of the usual suspects:  one of them wears a cowboy hat so he can be picked out in a crowd.  All of them are veteran #CSUN attendees.  The hashtag this motley crew wants to trend?  #GamePlan2015  Give them some love!

Disclaimer:  these are personal opinions

Don’t call it accessibility anymore, call it “information experience”

Have attitudes to accessibility changed within the tech industry over the past four years?  Does web accessibility still have an image problem?  If so, can we fix this and how?

  • Leonie:  yes, it’s improved.  With the exception of the CSUN conference, nearly all the conferences I’m asked to attend are mainstream.
  • Jennison:  I think there’s still a problem, most people think accessibility = blind people.  They don’t understand costs, and there’s a huge emphasis on the price tag.
  • Glenda:  it depends on us.  Are we being a pain in the neck, or are we helping?  There may be an image problem because a lot of professionals don’t necessarily agree on mitigation approaches.  We need ot make sure people fall in love with doing this.
  • Jared:  Perfect can be the enemy of good.  We shouldn’t let legalistic approaches to accessibility scare us…it’s a journey.

What is driving progress today:  awareness, technology, or legislation?

  • Jared:  all of the above.  Technology seems to be the area that continues to get short shrift.  New stuff coming out isn’t necessarily built with accessibility in mind.
  • John:  Leonie, is the UK more mature in terms of accessibility?  I think we may have a different attitude with respect to litigation, but our law is quite a bit more comprehensive.
  • John:  Jennison, what about Canada?  I think fear of legislation – specifically AODA – is driving a lot of the work that’s being done up there.
  • Glenda:  US experience, legislation doesn’t drive innovation, but it often drives the accessibility reality, especially in specific areas like purchasing airline tickets (note the difference between this task now and after December 12, 2015).

Is there a best place for accessibility to be anchored in an organization?

  • Jennison:  it should be driven from within IT.  Accessibility folks need to be embedded within the people building products, i.e. designers, developers.
  • Jared:  building it into the process is the key.  Building architects now build accessibility features directly into their plans.  There are still accessibility specialists out there, but by and large they’re called in to deal with special cases.
  • Glenda:  in life in EDU I was in an IT unit and I built relationships with many areas.  You need to build this into annual review process.

How can we further expand web accessibility into mainstream web design and development education?  What is working, and what isn’t?

  •  Jared:  we’re not really there yet.  We’re making progress, but we’re not there.
  • Glenda:  there needs to be a degree for web experience.  We need to look at building this into the K12 and junior colleges.  Many of us learned by “viewing source.”
  • Jennison:  I think that accessibility camps (these are a bit like a meetup crossed with a hackathon) are a piece of the solution.  We ask questions “how do you score yourselves with accessibility.”  Many companies hire developers out of development bootcamps.  We need to get into those bootcamps (i.e. go where the devs are).
  • John:  Are we making advancements in education globally?  Leonie:  we’re going to be firefighters until it’s baked into education programs.  I experienced this while testing getting a degree in computer science.

Outside of teaching accessibility at schools, how do we attract more tech professionals to come work with us?

  • Jared:  attract them with money!  Practitioners who have these skills can make more money.  You won’t become a millionaire doing this, but you can do well.
  • Jennison:  we need to find opportunities to speak about our field on panels at mainstream conferences and events.  To attract more professionals, we need to be a bit more gracious to people getting into the field.  The “pile on” mentality is still prevalent in many areas.
  • John:  is the money thing a new development?
  • Jared:  it’s been a slow process, but this is definitely a place where legislation has had a significant impact, especially with respect to job titles.
  • Glenda:  there’s something innately meaningful about this work.  Developers at a Fortune 50 company shared how much they loved doing this kind of work (i.e. “I can’t remember the last time I cared about doing my work”).  Mentors are an important part of this process.
  • Leonie:  drawing people into the profession requires a defined profession for them to walk into.  It’s a bit like web development was back in the 90s.
  • Jennison:  if you have an internship program, teach them!  Get them on the accessibility/development team.

What has the emergence of the mobile platform had on our successes and failures?  What lessons have we learned from the mobile revolution?

  • Jared:  giving up on pixel-perfect designs has been extremely helpful in moving accessibility forward.
  • Leonie:  SDKs by major companies (Google, Apple) for native accessibility has helped a lot.  It’s not perfect, but it helps.

What are the biggest things that are still broken in web accessibility efforts today?

  • Leone:  lack of education
  • Jennison:  text only sites
  • Glenda:  testing
  • Jared:  legislation has helped; focus on users matters

What is the single most effective thing our community could do to change the course of accessibility over the next four years?

  • Glenda:  needs to be done by more than just one person
  • Jared:  I think we’re on the right track…keep up the passion!
  • Jennison:  focus on practical, not perfection.
  • Leonie:  stop going on about guidelines, encourage the creative side of this.

 

 

Categories
Accessibility Technology

Accessibility at the BBC

Presenter:  Ian Pouncey, @IanPouncey

(Be sure to look at Ian’s Feb 23 retweet of theVine video of a guitar playing with a dog drumming.  It’s awesome.)

This is the third presentation I attended on Wednesday, March 4 at the #CSUN15 conference.  Ian’s presentations have been entertaining in the past, so I’m looking forward to this one.

Ian shared a couple quotes from BBC higher-ups:

  • “Everyone deserves the best” quote from Tony Hall, BBC director General, 2013
  • Hugh Huddy quote on the iPlayer

BBC Accessibility Team

  • 3 people responsible for: training, standards & guidelines, techniques, framework support
  • Not responsible for accessibility of sites or apps.  We have 7,000+ content producers, our team would need to be enormous to cover all this!

Training

  • Accessibility for web developers:  this is an online course that takes about two hours and shows how real people with disabilities use their products.
  • Introduction to screen readers:  one-day workshop that provides hands-on use of screen readers, including iOS and Android OSes.  It’s primarily for front-end developers.
  • Question:  is it for Jaws?  Yes, but if the users have NVDA, we provide guidance for them as well.
  • Question:  can you make this training publicly available (laughter ensued).  For the web developer course, we’d really like to, but we may not be able to for competition reasons.

Upcoming training

  • QA
  • UX
  • Product Management
  • Mobile application development

Standards & Guidelines

  • Mobile Accessibility
  • HTML
  • Assistive Tech

Mobile Accessibility Standards & Guidelines

  • Technology agnostic, but platform specific techniques
  • All have success criteria

HTML Accessibility Standards

  • Minimal set of expected standards for our products
  • Standards are unambiguous so there can be no arguing when we engage with content partners

 Assistive Technology Testing Guidelines

  • Currently for screen reader only
  • Not support guidelines
  • Showed a very long list of guidelines that they use for testing

Question:  How do you choose/define your “window of support?”  We have a standard approach for screen readers and browsers.  Generally, we use “current version minus one,” with an exclusion for some versions of Internet Explorer.

Question:  do you have any tools for automated testing?  Yes, I’ll discuss that shortly.

Standards vs Guidelines

A standard is:

  • Must or must not
  • unambiguous
  • Unambiguously testable

Guideline

  • Should or should not
  • Must or must not that is:  open to interpretation; testing requires judgement

Anatomy of a well written standard

  • Short description:  a document must have exactly one H1 element
  • Rationale:  must be useful, i.e. “Users should be able to use the document’s <h1> to identify its main content.  Documents should have one main subject”
  • Examples
  • Testing Criteria:  Procedure, i.e. “Use WAVE toolbar or similar to generate a document outline, there must be exactly one <h1>”

Secret bit

  • bbc-a11y ruby gem

Standards vs Understanding

  • Understanding is more important than standards, but organizational awareness is more important than understanding
  • Goal is to enable people to do their jobs as easily as possible
  • We don’t want accessibility to be a checklist activity, but we realize that sometimes it does work that way
  • It should be embedded into everything we do so that the knowledge gets “locked in”

Accessibility Champions Network

  • Extends our team’s reach
  • Spreads knowledge and understanding
  • Our eyes, ears, and voice in products
  • Not just for developers
  • Don’t have to be an expert
  • Not responsible for accessibility
  • Shares knowledge

Benefits of being a champion

  • Additional training
  • Closer contact with accessibility team
  • Work with other teams
  • 10% time project
  • Prestige!  Fame!  Glory!
  • There will

Question:  do you do any assessments of the work the developers are doing?  Occasionally, but it’s often more about the frameworks and components that are used in a product.

Question:  How often to accessibility champions answer to their team?  It’s a new thing we’re starting.

UX:  Roles and Responsibilities

  • Visual design
  • Semantics
  • Markup and content order
  • Hidden content

Design is Critical

  • Development may not be the most important part of the project!  This one looked painful for Ian to say 🙂

Beyond Design & Development

  • Product Owners:  encourage training; make the accessible decision, not the easy decision; plan for testing with disabled user
  • Content producers:  understand alternatives, plan for audio desc, subtitling, etc.

Global Experience Language:  GEL

  • Similar to Google’s, but not as well maintained.  It’s a bit out of date
  • Showed an example of an overlay/carousel panel

Document design knowledge

  • Enable design iteration
  • prevents repeated mistakes
  • encourages evidence based desing
  • educates

Code Based GEL

  • Production quality code
  • White labelled
  • Acceptance tests included

 

 

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