Just How Accessible Is Your Information?

Vencer CottonColumbia Lighthouse for the Blind

Betsy FanningAIIM

A Conversation Worth Having• A real story• The added value of being accessible • Do the right thing• Myths about accessibility

– Accessibility = ugly– Accessibility = breaking the bank

Harness the Power of Partnership• Where Things Stand:

– Legal status• There are no specific published technical requirements that define how the ADA is applied to the Internet.

Different circuit courts and the Department of Justice have different positions. This is a developing legal area and knowledgeable counsel is critical.

– ADA Enforcement• The Department of Justice: enforces based on WCAG 2.0 Level AA guidelines as the technical standard.• State and Local: depending on your state, you could get pressure from state and local agencies or the State

Attorney General• Advocacy Groups: Pursue litigation to accomplish access• Plaintiff’s Counsel: ADA-focused plaintiff’s attorneys are actively pursuing web-related claims, especially in recent

months– Dealing with Demand Letters

• What To Do First (Hint: Don’t call CLB)– Counsel is critical– Either your in-house legal team or external counsel– Majority of demand letters we’ve seen are boilerplate and rely principally on automatic testing results,

not expert testing– Your legal counsel can create a plan alongside a technical consultant like CLB

Harness the Power of Partnership (cont.)The Tools We Use

• Assistive Technologies– Examples of assistive technology for ICT

user:• Screen readers• Refreshable Braille displays• Screen magnifiers• Onscreen or other special keyboards• TDD/TTY and video relay devices• Text-to-speech software• Word prediction software• Screen readers and screen magnifiers are the

most common types of assistive technology used by persons who are blind or visually impaired

• CLB Services– Free limited audits– Competitively-priced comprehensive

audits– Periodic monitoring – Training– General and specific consultations– Strategic accessibility policy creation and

implementation– Referral program

How Accessible?

Why Information Accessibility?• 19% of population has some disability (U.S. Census)• 12% of population deals with migraines (Migraine Research

Foundation)• 1 in 12 males and 1 in 200 women have color blindness

(Colblindor)• 75% of adult population use vision correcting products (Vision

Council of America)• 20% of Internet users have visual impairment (AccessibilIT.com)• 1 in 3 adults experience blindness or partial sight loss as age

(AcessibilIT.com)

Accessibility Guidance • U. S. Access Board, federal agency promotes equality for people with

disabilities – Section 508 Refresh January 2017 – Incorporates WCAG by reference for web content– Incorporates ISO 14289 by reference for accessible PDF files

• U. S. Rehabilitation Act, Section 508, Electronic Access to Information• U. S. Rehabilitation Act, Section 504, Protecting Students with

Disabilities• Americans with Disabilities Act• Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act• UN Accessibility for the Disabled• Canadians with Disabilities Act

Document Accessibility Standards

• ISO 32000, Document management – Portable Document Format (PDF)• ISO 14289-1, Document management applications – Electronic

document file format enhancement for accessibility – Part 1: Use of ISO 32000-1 (PDF/UA-1)

• ISO/CD 14289-2, Document management applications - Electronic document file format enhancement for accessibility – Part 2: Use of ISO 32000-2 (PDF/UA-2)

• WCAG, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (Worldwide Web Consortium)

• Technical Implementation Guide PDF/UA• Technical Implementation Guide PDF/UA and ISO 32000-1• Achieving WCAG 2.0 with PDF/UA

Accessible PDF Files• Searchable text – Scanned image text is not accessible and can

be made accessible with OCR• Fonts that allow characters to be extracted to text – need to

include enough information about the fonts so the extraction can determine how to map the font to Unicode characters

• Do not rely on colors or sensory characteristics to convey meaning

• Make sure your colors contrast sufficiently• Have controls for audio• Do not use flashing or blinking – can cause a seizure in matter of

seconds

Accessibility Examples• U. S. Department of Homeland Security

(2013)• U. S. Small Business Administration (SBA)

(2009)• Target.com (2008)• H&R Block (2013)• Canadian Federal Government (2010)

What Can Be Done?• Develop an Information Access Strategy• Use defined structural headings, lists and data

tables• Add descriptive alternative text for images,

embedded music, etc.• Eliminate flashing or blinking objects• Ensure fonts can be resized• Make colors contrast

Myth #1

There’s only a small audience for accessibility.

http://info.aiim.org/2017-state-of-information-management

Myth #2

Waiting for problems is just as easy as doing it now.

Myth #3

Accessible design interferes with design.

• Vencer Cotton, Senior Director of Technology and Training

• Phone: 240-737-5137• Email: vcotton@clb.org• For general inquiries, please visit our

website at www.clb.org and click on the light blue “Contact” button at the top of the homepage:

• Betsy Fanning, Director, Standards• Phone: 571-218-9817• Email: bfanning@aiim.org