Making Accessibility Part of the Design Process

Mike ElledgeAccessibility Team Lead

Assistant DirectorMSU Usability & Accessibility Center

Topics

• What is accessibility?• Why be concerned about it?• How to be accessible• Sakai development model and accessibility• Accessibility tools

What is Accessibility?• Wikipedia: Accessibility is a general term used to

describe the degree to which a system is usable by as many people as possible.

• W3C (World Wide Web Consortium): Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the Web…people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to the Web.

Why Accessibility?

• Scope– About 20 percent of the population has a disability

• One in ten people have a severe disability• One in two people over 65 have reduced capabilities

– Disabilities encompass a wide range of conditions and circumstances• Hearing loss, low vision or blindness, cognitive issues,

physiological impairment– Temporary, permanent, situational

– Mild to extreme

Why Accessibility?• Inclusiveness

– Adults with disabilities spend, on average, twice as much time online as adults without disabilities- 20 hours per week compared to 10 hours per week.

– Adults with disabilities are much more likely than adults without disabilities to report that the Internet has significantly improved the quality of their lives (48% vs. 27%)

“How the Internet is Improving the Lives of Americans with Disabilities,” Humphrey Taylor, Harris Poll #30, June 7, 2000

Why Accessibility?

• Legal– U.S.: Americans with Disabilities Act (1990), Section

508 (revised 1998)– Australia: Disability Discrimination Act (1992)– Ireland: Disability Act of 2005– United Kingdom: Disability Discrimination Act (1995)

• Institutional– 25% of Sakai Partners have requirements (2005)– Another 50% have guidelines or developing them

Why Accessibility?

• Accessible sites are better sites– Transform to PDAs, cell phones, other devices– Tend to have logical navigation, organized content,

clearer labels, dependable functionality, structured tables and forms

– Makes site available to larger audience

How to Be Accessible?

• Awareness• Knowledge• Process

Sakai Development Model

1. Start-up

2. Design

3. Development

4. Release

User-Centered Design

1 2

3

4

5

Sakai Development Model

1. Start-up• Identify need• Add to Sakai requirements list• Identify resources• Create project plan

2. Design

3. Development

4. Release

Start-up• Identify Need

– Do user requests relate to usability or accessibility?– Institutional Needs

• Are there any tool components that relate to special circumstances?

• Have you talked to the Disability Resources area at your university?

• Add to Sakai Requirements list– Are there similar projects that can be combined with yours?– Do they have accessibility or usability components?

Start-up• Identify Resources

– Do your developers and designers have awareness and knowledge of accessibility issues?

• Plan– Is accessibility review and testing part of your design and

implementation process?

Sakai Development Model

1. Start-up

2. Design• Existing Tool• New Tool

3. Development

4. Release

Design• Existing Tool

– Think of known issues and how accessibility relates• Navigation: Do pages have good titles? Do button labels and links

make sense?• Content: Is page content grouped logically? Are sections of forms

clearly indicated? Do table headings make sense? Do you have paragraph headings?

• Functionality: Have you minimized the steps for accomplishing a task? Is each step clearly indicated?

• Appearance: Do you sufficient contrast between background and foreground colors in tables, forms and labels? Are required items marked with an asterisk? Have you avoided green/red and yellow/blue color combinations?

Design• New Tool

– Develop user profiles and scenarios• Include persons with disabilities

– Instructor losing vision or hearing– Student using wheelchair with quadriplegia– Student with attention deficit disorder (ADD)

– Create concepts and/or working prototypes• Conduct usability research• Identify problem areas

Sakai Development Model

1. Start-up

2. Design

3. Development– Code mindfully– Test tool– Iterate

4. Release

Development• Code Mindfully

– Consult the Sakai Developers checklist– Follow WCAG Recommendations (A and AA) for:

• Tables • Headings• Forms • Links• Lists • Skip links

– Follow Sakai specs, use existing design patterns and/or tool formats

– Progressively enhance code so it degrades gracefully• Test tool

– Validate code– Evaluate accessibility

• Iterate

Sakai Development Model1. Start-up

2. Design

3. Development

4. Release• Apply for provisional status• QA

Release

• Apply for provisional status• QA

Accessibility Resources• WCAG 1.0 (soon to be 2.0)

– http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php

• Sakai Accessibility Styleguide– http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/confluence/x/ew4

• Sakai Developer Checklist– http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/confluence/x/LgI

• Sakai Accessibility Evaluation Protocol– http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/confluence/x/uq4

• Sakai Design Patterns Library– http://bugs.sakaiproject.org/confluence/display/DESPAT/Home

Questions? Comments?