Oct 2014 Siteimprove Stockholm Accessibility Conference

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Web accessibility refers to “the practice of making websites usable by people of all abilities and disabilities.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_accessibility

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Jeffrey Zeldman

“…accessibility remains the least-taught, least-understood, least-cared-about of all our new and classic best practices.”

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Why Accessibility?

Accessibility is about people.

Up to 20% of internet users experience accessibility problems when browsing websites.

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Visual, auditory, physical, cognitive, vestibular

Older persons, low literacy

Technology limitations or incompatibility: browsers, platforms, devices, mobile web

Environmental factors: place, illumination, noise, slow connection

http://ec.europa.eu/ipg/standards/accessibility/index_en.htm

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

10% to 15% of the total population

50 to 75 million people in EU27

There is a strong correlation between disability and aging: the numbers increase with demographic change.

Source: Labour Force Survey (European Commission-Eurostat, 2002) http://ec.europa.eu/ipg/standards/accessibility/index_en.htm

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Who is responsible for Website Accessibility?

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

• Webmaster • Marketing Staff • Web Developers • Web Designers • Content Managers • IT Staff • Non-technical Stakeholders

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Websites are inaccessible due to their owners being unaware and uneducated.

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

We need to educate website owners.

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

• 36.6% Lack of Skills and Knowledge

• 36.2% Lack of Awareness

• 13.2% Affect the look, feel, or functionality

• 13.9% Lack of Budget or Resources

http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=1057

Why is your Website not Accessible?

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

We need to offer realistic solutions.

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

• Programs may err in their interpretation of the guidelines • A genuine text equivalent for a photograph in context • Lose the spirit of the law

There is no such thing as fully automated accessibility testing.

• Good tools inspect the page for problems • Produce a list of things they judge to be errors • List of things they judge worth human inspection

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Example: • alt=“” needs review to determine if “decorative”

• alt=“picture” needs review to determine if adequate

• alt=“toy retro robot” needs review to determine if adequate

There is no such thing as fully automated accessibility testing.

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Getting Started

Accessibility Usability

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Findability

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Coding for accessibility sucks.

There’s no such thing as a fully accessible website.

Just because you have an (mostly) accessible site, doesn’t mean you have a usable site.

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Accessibility is a process and not a project and it is relevant throughout the lifetime of a website.

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Include accessibility requirements in the organization’s design and communications style guides.

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Ensure testing, especially design and templates

Carry out training

Have a plan for ongoing site monitoring

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Utilize persons with disabilities in your testing plan.

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Know the Rules • SE regulations and dates

• WCAG 2.0

• Semantic markup

• Style guides

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Practical Training Plans • Designers

• Developers

• Content Creators

• Document Creators

• Proper CMS training

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

• Webmaster • Marketing Staff • Web Developers • Web Designers • Content Managers • IT Staff • Non-technical Stakeholders

Remember These Guys?

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Web Designers

• Consistent design & navigation

• Contrast ratios

• White space!

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Web Developers

• Pay attention to forms and scripts

• Structure headings correctly

• Keyboard navigation

• Avoid programming text like “Click Here” or “Read More”

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Content Managers

• Use comprehensive “alt” tags

• Structure writing with headings

• The Web is not a Word document!

• Follow the company style guides

• Accessible documents

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Webmaster

• Proper training for teams

• Use CMS to enforce accessibility

• Ensure templates are accessible

• Test early, test often

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Low-hanging Fruit (Quick Fixes) • Templates

• Style Sheets

• Divide and conquer

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

High Traffic Pages • Site Structure

• Analytics

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

A-level Errors • Images

• Headings

• Forms

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Report Success!

Track Progress

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Accessible Documents • Online documents are a huge part of online

communication across many industries.

• Organizations sometimes rely on their website as the only way of providing these documents.

• Accessibility of online documents exposes website owners to the same risks as inaccessible web pages.

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

What Defines an Accessible Document? • Understand the document’s structure

• Read and understand a document’s content, including text and images

• Understand and navigate within the document

• Interact with any forms on the document

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Questions?

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

Kevin Rydberg • Senior eAccessibility Consultant, Siteimprove

• kry@siteimprove.com

• @rydbergk

• linkedin.com/in/KevinRydberg

krysiteimprove.com

Getting Started With Web Accessibility

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