1. User‐Centered Design and
Accessibility
Wheelchair accessible tourism India

2. Technology should make
our lives easier.
Too often,
• We can’t find what we need, when we need it
• We get lost because of too much information
• We never gain access to content ... the site
was never correctly coded for accessibility
Wheelchair accessible tourism India

3. Who’s responsible for making web
sites work for us, not against us?
•
•
•
•
•
Web Designers
Web Developers
Web Managers/Owners
Executives
End Users (*through Usability Testing
and feedback)
Wheelchair accessible tourism India

4. What is “Usability”?
• Usability is the measure of how well products
that are intended to help us actually help us
... WITHOUT unexpected frustrations, errors,
and roadblocks ...
Wheelchair accessible tourism India

5. What is “User‐Centered Design” (UCD)?
• A design process where the ACHIEVEMENT OF
REAL HUMAN GOALS is the measure of success
• UCD helps create web sites that
– Allow people to succeed.
– Do not make people feel stupid.
– Do not frustrate people.
Wheelchair accessible tourism India

6. The Relationship between Usability, User‐
Centered Design, and Accessibility
• Usability is a component of Accessibility
• Even if a product is accessible, it still may
confuse the heck out of someone who’s trying
to perform a task
• User‐Centered Design is the process that can
help us achieve accessibility and usability.
Wheelchair accessible tourism India

7. Know your USERS
• Diverse Backgrounds
• Various Ages
• Wide Range of Computer, Internet
Experience
• Different Disabilities
• Variable Use of Assistive Technologies
(AT)
Wheelchair accessible tourism India

8. Develop “User Personas”
• Write 1‐Page Fictional Representations of
your Audience
• List their real‐world goals
• How many Personas do I need?
– Depends on your site (typically 3‐10)
– Enough to fully represent the user base
• Include Personas that represent users with
disabilities
Wheelchair accessible tourism India

9. How do User Personas help?
• Your developers understand who needs your
web site
• Your whole organization (management,
executives) clearly knows who they serve and
why
• You can measure how well your site does its
job
– How easily can people meet their goals using your site?
Wheelchair accessible tourism India

10. Train your Developers
• For each of the 508 standards, document
code examples
• Demonstrate how Screen Readers work for
your Developers
• Help them understand how their good coding
practices help real people
• Coding standards will help keep your sites
accessible into the future
Wheelchair accessible tourism India

11. Tools and Techniques
• www.Usability.gov (The Cancer Institute site
with usability and accessibility information)
• Download JAWS (Freedom Scientific) or demo
versions of other Assistive Technologies
• Card Sorting Exercises
– Navigation Design and Content Organization
– Use Vocabulary that is natural for your users
Wheelchair accessible tourism India

12. Design and Develop
Now that we know the users and the scenarios ...
• Design so that users can fulfill their goals
• Start with low‐fidelity mock‐ups or wireframes
• Follow standards and code examples for
Accessible Design
• Use templates and CSS to ensure consistency
• Incorporate Accessibility and Usability Testing to
make sure newly developed code is accessible
and usable
Wheelchair accessible tourism India

13. Conduct Usability Tests with
Help from the Disability Community
• Test early using mock-ups or wireframes
• Partner with groups who can supply
disability advocates to help test your site
• Observe what the users are saying as they
work through real-world scenarios
• You’ll learn where your site fails
Wheelchair accessible tourism India

14. Iterate, Iterate, Iterate
• Plan for multiple iterations to improve the
usability and accessibility of your site
• You’ll learn more and more with each usability
test as you gradually improve the site
• Make UCD part of your process so your site
stays accessible and usable.
• Quality Assurance is critical for clean code.
Wheelchair accessible tourism India

15. Accessible Design is
GOOD Design for ALL
• Since Accessible Web sites work well through Assistive
Technologies, they also work better for:
– Handheld & Mobile Devices
– Low‐bandwidth (modem users)
• Designing for Accessibility often cuts through the clutter that
gets in the way of all users
Wheelchair accessible tourism India

16. Wheelchair accessible tourism India