Selfish AccessibilityPresented by Adrian Roselli for WordCamp Toronto 2014

#WCTO

About Adrian Roselli

• Co-written four books.

• Technical editorfor two books.

• Written over fifty articles, most recentlyfor .net Magazine andWeb Standards Sherpa.

Great bedtime reading!

About Adrian Roselli

• Member of W3C HTML Working Group, W3C Accessibility Task Force, five W3C Community Groups.

• Building for the web since 1994.

• Founder, owner at Algonquin Studios (AlgonquinStudios.com).

• Learn more at AdrianRoselli.com.

• Avoid on Twitter @aardrian.

I warned you.

What is a11y?

• A numeronym for “accessibility”:

• The first and last letter,

• The number of characters omitted.

• Prominent on Twitter (character restrictions):

• #a11y

• Examples:

• l10n → localization

• i18n → internationalization

Ain’t language funsies?

Accessibility Gets No Respect

In fairness, Sherwin Williams needs to come up with a lot of color names...

“Cyberspace” (gray)

“Online” (blue)

“Lime Rickey” (green)

Accessibility Gets No Respect

…however I think the team could have done better than this.

What We’ll Cover

• Boring Statistics

• How to Be Selfish

• Basic Tests

• Some Techniques

• Accessibility and WordPress

• Questions (ongoing!)

Work with me, people.

Boring Statistics

1 of 5 sections.

Any Disability

• In the United States:• 10.4% aged 21-64 years old,

• 25% aged 65-74 years old,

• 50% aged 75+.

• Includes:• Visual

• Hearing

• Mobility

• Cognitive

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/http://www.disabilitystatistics.org/reports/2012/English/HTML/report2012.cfm?fips=2000000&html_year=2012

Vision Impairments

• 285 million worldwide:

• 39 million are blind,

• 246 million have low vision,

• 82% of people living with blindness are aged 50 and above.

• 1.8% of Americans aged 21-64.

• 4.0% of Americans aged 65-74.

• 9.8% of Americans aged 75+.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/http://www.disabilitystatistics.org/reports/2012/English/HTML/report2012.cfm?fips=2000000&html_year=2012

Hearing Impairments

• 360 million people worldwide have disabling hearing loss.

• 17% (36 million) of American adults report some degree of hearing loss:

• 18% aged 45-64 years old,

• 30% aged 65-74 years old,

• 47% aged 75+ years old.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs300/en/https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/Pages/quick.aspx

Mobility Impairments

• In the United States:

• 5.5% aged 21-64 years old.

• 15.6% aged 65-74 years old.

• 32.9% aged 75+.

http://www.disabilitystatistics.org/reports/2012/English/HTML/report2012.cfm?fips=2000000&html_year=2012

Cognitive Impairments

• Dyslexia,

• Dyscalculia,

• Memory issues,

• Distractions (ADD, ADHD),

• In the United States:

• 4.3% aged 21-64 years old.

• 5.4% aged 65-74 years old.

• 14.4% aged 75+.

http://www.disabilitystatistics.org/reports/2012/English/HTML/report2012.cfm?fips=2000000&html_year=2012&subButton=Get+HTML

How to Be Selfish

2 of 5 sections.

WebAIM’s Hierarchy for Motivating Accessibility Change

http://webaim.org/blog/motivating-accessibility-change/

My Hierarchy for Motivating Accessibility Change

Is better, no?

Getting Older

• Affects (nearly) everyone,

• Carries risks and side effects,

• Is not for the young.

I’m still experimenting with it.

Rising Damp on Flickr.

Darren Baldwin on Flickr.

Accidents

• Broken limbs,

• Eye injuries,

• Hearing injuries,

• Head trauma.

All of these have happened to me, multiple times.

James Lee on Flickr.

Rev Stan on Flickr.

Let Ideas Compete on Flickr.

Fluffy Steve on Flickr.

Paul Townsend on Flickr.

But I’m Invincible!

• Multi-tasking,

• Sunlight,

• Eating at your desk,

• No headphones handy,

• Content is not in your native language.

The sun is trying to kill me.

https://twitter.com/aardrian/statuses/388733408576159744

Shawn Liu on Flickr.

Bitznbitez on Flickr.

Mariëlle on Flickr.

barockschloss on Flickr.

Seb on Flickr.

A.Davy on Flickr.

Raul Lieberwirth on Flickr.

Tim Norris on Flickr.

Steve Rhodes on Flickr.

SuperFantastic on Flickr.

Jacob Enos on Flickr.

World Bank Photo Collection on Flickr.

Lars Kristian Flem on Flickr.

Tech Support

• Think of your family!

• Think of your time spent helping them!

• Think of the wasted holidays!

This is why we hate the holidays.

Robert Simmons on Flickr.

The Message

• Supporting accessibility now helps to serve future you.

There is no try.

The Message

• Supporting accessibility now helps to serve future you.

• Supporting accessibility now helps injured you, encumbered you.

There is no try.

The Message

• Supporting accessibility now helps to serve future you.

• Supporting accessibility now helps injured you, encumbered you.

• Getting younger developers to buy in helps future you – if you teach them well.

There is no try.

Basic Tests

3 of 4 sections.

Click on Field Labels

• When you click label text next to a text box, does the cursor appear in the field?

• When you click label text next to a radio / checkbox, does it get toggled?

• When you click label text next to a select menu, does it get focus?

http://www.karlgroves.com/2013/09/05/the-6-simplest-web-accessibility-tests-anyone-can-do/

Unplug Your Mouse

• Turn off your trackpad, stick, trackball, etc.

• Can you interact with all controls (links, menus, forms) with only the keyboard?

• Can you tell which item has focus?

• Does the tab order match your expectation?

http://www.karlgroves.com/2013/09/05/the-6-simplest-web-accessibility-tests-anyone-can-do/

Turn off Images

• Can you still make sense of the page?

• Is content missing?

• Can you still use the site?

• Is your alt text useful?

http://www.karlgroves.com/2013/09/05/the-6-simplest-web-accessibility-tests-anyone-can-do/

Turn on High Contrast Mode

• Windows only.

• Background images and colors are replaced.

• Text colors are replaced.

• Does this make your site unusable?

http://www.karlgroves.com/2013/09/05/the-6-simplest-web-accessibility-tests-anyone-can-do/http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2012/08/css-background-images-high-contrast-mode.html

Turn off CSS

• Does important content or functionality disappear?

• Do error messages or other items that rely on visual cues make sense?

• Is content still in a reasonable order?

• Do any styles (colors, text effects, etc.) remain?

http://www.karlgroves.com/2013/09/05/the-6-simplest-web-accessibility-tests-anyone-can-do/

Test for Colorblindness/Contrast

• Is there enough contrast?

• Are hyperlinks, menus, etc. still visible?

• Tools:

• Chrome Color Contrast Analyzer

• Lea Verou’s Contrast Ratio

• WebAIM Color Contrast Checker

• CheckMyColours.com

http://www.inpixelitrust.fr/blog/en/tips-create-accessible-color-palette/http://alistapart.com/blog/post/easy-color-contrast-testing

Protanopia

Deuteranopia

Tritanopia

Look for Captions & Transcripts

• Do video/audio clips have text alternatives?

• Are links to closed-captions or transcripts built into the player or separate text links?

• Is there an audio description available?

• Tools:• Media Access Australia YouTube captioning tutorial,

Vimeo captioning tutorial,

• Tiffany Brown’s WebVTT tutorial,

• DIY Resources for Closed Captioning and Transcription from 3 Play Media.

http://webaim.org/techniques/captions/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCqN_cCLnnk

Hyperlinks!

• Is there any “click here,” “more,” “link to…”?

http://www.sitepoint.com/15-rules-making-accessible-links/

Hyperlinks!

• Is there any “click here,” “more,” “link to…”?

• Are you using all-caps, URLs, emoticons?

http://www.sitepoint.com/15-rules-making-accessible-links/

Hyperlinks!

• Is there any “click here,” “more,” “link to…”?

• Are you using all-caps, URLs, emoticons?

• Do you warn before opening new windows?

http://www.sitepoint.com/15-rules-making-accessible-links/

Hyperlinks!

• Is there any “click here,” “more,” “link to…”?

• Are you using all-caps, URLs, emoticons?

• Do you warn before opening new windows?

• Do links to downloads provide helpful info?

http://www.sitepoint.com/15-rules-making-accessible-links/

Hyperlinks!

• Is there any “click here,” “more,” “link to…”?

• Are you using all-caps, URLs, emoticons?

• Do you warn before opening new windows?

• Do links to downloads provide helpful info?

• Are you using pagination links?

http://www.sitepoint.com/15-rules-making-accessible-links/

Hyperlinks!

• Is there any “click here,” “more,” “link to…”?

• Are you using all-caps, URLs, emoticons?

• Do you warn before opening new windows?

• Do links to downloads provide helpful info?

• Are you using pagination links?

• Are your links underlined (or otherwise obvious)?

http://www.sitepoint.com/15-rules-making-accessible-links/

Hyperlinks!

• Is there any “click here,” “more,” “link to…”?

• Are you using all-caps, URLs, emoticons?

• Do you warn before opening new windows?

• Do links to downloads provide helpful info?

• Are you using pagination links?

• Are your links underlined (or otherwise obvious)?

• Is there alt text for image links?

http://www.sitepoint.com/15-rules-making-accessible-links/

Hyperlinks!

• Is there any “click here,” “more,” “link to…”?

• Are you using all-caps, URLs, emoticons?

• Do you warn before opening new windows?

• Do links to downloads provide helpful info?

• Are you using pagination links?

• Are your links underlined (or otherwise obvious)?

• Is there alt text for image links?

• Is the link text consistent?

http://www.sitepoint.com/15-rules-making-accessible-links/

http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2014/03/i-dont-care-what-google-did-just-keep.html

Some Techniques

4 of 5 sections.

Checklist

• Accessibility is not a checklist.

http://accessibility.net.nz/blog/the-problems-with-ramps-blended-into-stairs/

Checklist

• Accessibility is not a checklist.

• Accessibility is an ongoing process.

http://accessibility.net.nz/blog/the-problems-with-ramps-blended-into-stairs/

Stairamp

Dean Bouchard on Flickrhttp://accessibility.net.nz/blog/the-problems-with-ramps-blended-into-stairs/

WAI-ARIA

• Web Accessibility Initiative – Accessible Rich Internet Applications.

• Adds accessibility information to HTML elements.

• Can be used with prior versions of HTML.

• WAI-ARIA 1.0 published March 20, 2014.

http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/

Four Five Rules of ARIA Use

1. If you can use a native HTML5 element with semantics/behavior already built in, then do so, instead of repurposing another element.

RT this! https://twitter.com/aardrian/status/454249142387081219

Four Five Rules of ARIA Use

2. Do not change native semantics. Unless you really have to (no <h1> with a role="button", for example).

RT this! https://twitter.com/aardrian/status/454249201564532737

Four Five Rules of ARIA Use

3. All interactive ARIA controls must be usable with the keyboard — keyboard users must be able to perform equivalent actions.

RT this! https://twitter.com/aardrian/status/454249253284483072

Four Five Rules of ARIA Use

4. Do not use role="presentation" or aria-hidden="true" on a focusable element. If you do so, some users will never be able to focus.

RT this! https://twitter.com/aardrian/status/454249297408585729

Four Five Rules of ARIA Use

5. All interactive elements must have an accessible name (in progress). This may come from a visible (text on a button) or invisible (alt text on an image) property.

As of May 12: http://rawgit.com/w3c/aria-in-html/master/index.html#fifth-rule-of-aria-useAccessible name: http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/terms#def_accessible_name

Role Playing

Stolen from Heydon Pickering: https://twitter.com/heydonworks/status/420196676297424898/

HTML/ARIA Don’t

<div onclick="DoThing();">Do a thing.</div>

I see this all the time.

HTML/ARIA Don’t

<div onclick="DoThing();" tabindex="0">Do a thing.</div>

I see this a bunch, too.

HTML/ARIA Don’t

<div onclick="DoThing();" tabindex="0" onkeypress="DoThing();">Do a thing.</div>

Excluded bits like if(event.keyCode==32||event.keyCode==13)DoThing();

HTML/ARIA Don’t

<div onclick="DoThing();" tabindex="0" onkeypress="DoThing();" role="button">Do a thing.</div>

ARIA roles to the rescue! Er…

HTML/ARIA Do

<button onclick="DoThing();" onkeypress="DoThing();">Do a thing.</button>

Or just start with the right element. http://www.karlgroves.com/2013/05/14/links-are-not-buttons-neither-are-divs-and-spans/

WAI-ARIA

• Accessibility Lipstick on a Usability Pig

By Jared Smith: http://webaim.org/blog/accessibility-lipstick-on-a-usability-pig/

• What is WAI-ARIA, what does it do for me, and what not?

By Marco Zehe: http://www.marcozehe.de/2014/03/27/what-is-wai-aria-what-does-it-do-for-me-and-what-not/

ARIA ALL THE THINGS!

HTML5 Elements

• Sectioning elements already have accessibility built in. Use them.

• <header>

• <nav>

• <main> (one per page)

• <aside>

• <footer>

• <form> (a search form)

This stuff is baked in!

HTML5/ARIA Landmarks

• They don’t always have support in assistive technologies (AT), so use roles as well.

• <header role="banner"> (once per page)

• <nav role="navigation">

• <main role="main"> (one per page)

• <aside role="complementary">

• <footer role="contentinfo"> (once per page)

• <form role="search">

http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/wiki/Using_ARIA_landmarks_to_identify_regions_of_a_page

Generic Desktop Layout

<header role="banner">

<nav role="navigation">

<aside role="complementary">

<form role="search">

<footer role="contentinfo">

<main role="main">

Generic “Mobile”

Layout

<header role="banner">

<nav role="navigation">

<aside role="complementary">

<form role="search">

<footer role="contentinfo">

<main role="main">

“Mobile” really means narrow screen in RWD, as well as this context.

HTML5 Headings

• Use normal heading ranks to convey document structure.

• Don’t skip; go in order.

<h1>

<h2>

<h3>

<h4>

<h5>

<h6>

Fun fact: NCSA Mosaic 1.0 had provisions for an <h7>: http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2013/04/ncsa-moscaic-turns-20.html

HTML5 Headings

• Document Outline Algorithm…

• Is a myth,

• Isn’t implemented in any browsers,

• Should not be relied upon.

• Don’t be fooled by articles claiming otherwise.

• Spec being updated.

• No SEO benefit for one over other.

http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2013/12/the-truth-about-truth-about-multiple-h1.html

The New <div>itis

• <section>orrhea, <article> abuse.

• These map to regions in page navigation order (role="region").

• Can overwhelm users of AT.

• If it doesn’t get an <h#>, don’t use it.

• If it shouldn’t be in the document outline, don’t use it.

http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/sections.html#the-section-elementhttp://www.w3.org/TR/html5/sections.html#the-article-element

Focus Styles

http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2014/06/keep-focus-outline.html

Focus Styles

• Necessary for keyboard use,

• Use in conjunction with :hover,

• Check libraries for :focus styles.

It’s built in, just don’t mess with it.

Focus Styles

https://twitter.com/aardrian/statuses/489837817129099266

Alternative Text

• Which is correct?

• <img src="fox.png" alt="Photo of a fox reading aloud from a book.">

http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2013/11/image-alt-exception-change-re-re-re.html

Alternative Text

• Which is correct?

• <img src="fox.png" alt="Photo of a fox reading aloud from a book.">

• <img src="fox.png" title="Photo of a fox reading aloud from a book.">

http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2013/11/image-alt-exception-change-re-re-re.html

Alternative Text

• Which is correct?

• <img src="fox.png" alt="Photo of a fox reading aloud from a book.">

• <img src="fox.png" title="Photo of a fox reading aloud from a book.">

• <img src="fox.png" aria-label="Photo of a fox reading aloud from a book.">

http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2013/11/image-alt-exception-change-re-re-re.html

Alternative Text

• Which is correct?• <img src="fox.png" alt="Photo of a fox reading

aloud from a book.">

• <img src="fox.png" title="Photo of a fox reading aloud from a book.">

• <img src="fox.png" aria-label="Photo of a fox reading aloud from a book.">

• <img src="fox.png" aria-labelledby="FoxPic"> <p id="FoxPic">Photo of a fox reading aloud from a book.</p>

http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2013/11/image-alt-exception-change-re-re-re.html

Alternative Text

• Use alt attribute.

• Longdesc links to more verbose alternative.

http://www.w3.org/blog/2014/03/wcag-techniques-for-image-text-alternatives/

Alternative Text Decision Tree

http://www.4syllables.com.au/2010/12/text-alternatives-decision-tree/http://dev.w3.org/html5/alt-techniques/#tree

1. What role does image

play?

2. Does it present

new info?

3. What type of info?

Informative Yes

alt=""or

<a href="foo"><img alt="">Link</a>alt=""

orUse CSS

alt="descriptive identification"or

alt="short label" + caption

Pu

rely

Dec

ora

tive Se

nso

ry

No

alt="label for link"

alt=“short alternative"or

alt="short label" + caption

alt="short label + location of long alternative"or

long text alternative on same or linked page

Lon

g /

Co

mp

lex

Sho

rt /

Sim

ple

Accessibility and WordPress

5 of 5 sections

WP Accessibility Plug-in

http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-accessibility/

WP Accessibility Plug-in

• Simplest, quickest first step,

• Has many configuration options,

• Requires WordPress 3.4.2,

• Compatible up to WordPress 4.0,

• Install/configuration tutorial:

Make Your WordPress Site More Accessible

By the same guy who put together “Prioritization: Accessibility Tickets for WP 4.0”

WP Accessibility Plug-in

• Enable skip links• Add skip links with user-defined targets• Add language and text direction attributes to HTML element• Add outline to keyboard focus state• Add toolbar toggling between high contrast, large print, desaturated views of your

theme• Add long description to images• Remove target attribute from links• Force search page error when search is made with empty text string• Remove tabindex from elements that are focusable• Strip title attributes from images inserted into content• Remove redundant title attributes from page lists, category lists, archive menus• Add post titles to standard “read more” links• Address some accessibility issues in WordPress admin styles• Show color contrast between two provided hex values• Enable diagnostic CSS

This is a copy-paste job, you can see the list for yourself at the plug-in page.

Accessible Themes

• Look for “accessibility-ready,”

• Use the tag filter to find them, not the theme search:

http://wordpress.org/themes/tag-filter/

• Themes must be verified, validated against WP accessibility guidelines:

https://make.wordpress.org/themes/guidelines/guidelines-accessibility/

Themes claiming to be accessible may not be, so start here.

Accessible Themes

Just toggle the “accessibility-ready” checkbox, making sure to select “Match ALL of the checkboxes.”

Accessible Themes

15 options so far, including at least a couple that should be familiar.

Cities Project

• Increase number of free, accessible themes,

• Themes in development:

• Los Angeles, Copenhagen, Sydney, Boston, Toronto, New York, Mumbai, D.C., Canberra, Montreal, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Nashville, Ottawa, Twin Cities, Augusta Georgia

• http://accessiblejoe.com/cities/

Remember, they must pass validation by the WordPress Accessibility team.

Accessible Forms

• Gravity Forms

• http://cynng.wordpress.com/2014/02/26/tips-on-making-your-gravity-forms-as-accessible-as-possible/

• Add HTML5 inputs,

• Avoid presets,

• Add fieldset/label,

• Disable tabindex,

• Still needs ARIA.Remember to test the form.

Accessible Forms

• Contact Form 7

• http://blog.rrwd.nl/2014/03/01/how-to-set-up-an-accessible-form-using-contact-form-7-in-wordpress/

• Change the default form,

• Add shortcode for error messages,

• Add labels,

• Edit wp_config.php to disable CSS, JS, <p> with each new line.

Remember to test the form.

Remove Problematic Formatting Options From tinyMCE Plug-in

https://wordpress.org/plugins/remove-problematic-formatting-options-from-tinymce/

Remove Problematic Formatting Options From tinyMCE Plug-in

• Removes some buttons from tinyMCE:

• Font color,

• Underline,

• Alignment.

• Removes <h1> from role menu.

• Helps keep authors from overriding site styles,

• Added benefit of limiting risk to accessibility.

Sometimes you stumble across a plug-in that may be useful in more than one way.

Resources

• WordPress Themes Suck at Accessibility: It’s Time to Fix It (June 18, 2014)http://wptavern.com/wordpress-themes-suck-at-accessibility-its-time-to-fix-it

• WordPress admin accessibility report (March 30, 2014)http://discuss.wpuk.org/2014/03/30/wordpress-admin-accessibility-report/

• Tickets with a focus on accessibilityhttps://core.trac.wordpress.org/focus/accessibility

These are mostly additional reading, context, and where to start.

Questions

This isn’t a section, you should have been asking all along.

Resources

• Web Accessibility and Older People:Meeting the Needs of Ageing Web Users

http://www.w3.org/WAI/older-users/Overview.php

• Easy Checks - A First Review of Web Accessibility

http://www.w3.org/WAI/eval/preliminary

• How People with Disabilities Use the Web: Overview

http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/people-use-web/Overview.html

In addition to the gems I’ve sprinkled throughout.

Resources

• 2.11 ARIA Role, State, and Property Quick Referencehttp://www.w3.org/TR/aria-in-html/#aria-role-state-and-property-quick-reference

• 2.12 Definitions of States and Properties (all aria-* attributes)http://www.w3.org/TR/aria-in-html/#definitions-of-states-and-properties-all-aria--attributes

• Detecting Screen Readers – Nohttp://www.webaxe.org/detecting-screen-readers-no/

In addition to the gems I’ve sprinkled throughout.

Resources

• a11yTipshttp://dboudreau.tumblr.com/

• How to Write User Stories for Web Accessibilityhttp://www.interactiveaccessibility.com/blog/how-write-user-stories-accessibility-requirements

• Book Excerpt: A Web for Everyonehttp://uxmag.com/articles/book-excerpt-a-web-for-everyone

In addition to the gems I’ve sprinkled throughout.

Selfish AccessibilityPresented by Adrian Roselli for WordCamp Toronto 2014

Slides from this talk will be available at rosel.li/WCTO

My thanks and apologies.