Engaging industry and the public sector in accessible, inclusive design

David Sloan
@sloandr
24th May 2011
Scottish UPA, Edinburgh
Engaging industry and the public sector in accessible, inclusive design - do we need to shout louder or smarter?

Outline
Developments in Web/ICT Accessibility State of the Art
Technical
Research
Support
Challenges
Why are accessibility barriers still a problem?
What do YOU think?
David Sloan 24 May 2011
2

1 DEVELOPMENTS IN ACCESSIBILITY STATE-OF -THE-ART
3

New (exciting web) technologies
4

Accessibility and Inclusive ICT Research
156 Accessibility related projects listed at www.cardiac-project.eu
5

Resources
For developers
WCAG 2, ATAG and associated WAI resources
Data on browser/AT support: HTML 5 Accessibility
Best practice from industry leaders: Web Standards Sherpa, HTML5 Doctor
Tools: Inclusive Design Toolkit, AEGIS Personas
For people who experience accessibility barriers
Fix the Web
6

2 A LACK OF PROGRESS AND HOW WE CAN ADDRESS IT
7

We’re not there yet...
“Previous surveys of European websites to determine progress towards eInclusion and levels of conformance to published Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) have revealed disappointing low levels of compliance within government and the commercial sectors ”
Declaring Conformance on Web Accessibility: Final Report, 5th May 2011 http://goo.gl/9SNDK
8

Evidence of limited progress
Data from survey results
Issues with emerging web content and applications
Lack of engagement of accessibility (as we know it) in wider equality and inclusion movement
Existence of flawed design approaches
9

New focus: supporting the commissioning/procurement process
“You don’t ask, you don’t get...”
Recognition that ICT/web commissioning process involves many stakeholders, not just developers
European Union: Mandate 376 and 420
UK: British Standard BS8878
10

Aims of BS8878
Advice for how to embed accessibility strategically within an organisation
A process which identifies the key decisions which impact accessibility which are taken in a web product’s lifecycle
An informed way of making these decisions
A way of documenting all of this to ensure best practice
WebProduct Accessibility Statement
Organizational Web Accessibility Policy
WebProduct Accessibility Policy

BS8878: decision support
16 stage process; consider accessibility at each stage
Complements WCAG as it standardises a process c/f an end product
12

Supporting uptake: eAccess+
Network of 25 partner organisations from across EU
Outreach to industry and public sector
Encouraging and supporting uptake of eAccessibility
Activities
Web accessibility
Accessible convergent communications – focus on Interactive digital TV
Self-service terminals
13

Supporting uptake: eAccess+
Key aims:
Making people aware of the resources that are already out there
Finding out more about resistance/barriers to wider eAccessibility adoption
> Informing future EU activity in promoting inclusive ICT
14

3 WHAT ARE YOUR EXPERIENCES AND VIEWS?
15

Engaging with accessibility and usability professionals
What are the challenges you experience in promoting and supporting accessibility to organisations?
Lack of awareness
Attitude and assumptions
The business case; ROI
Lack of resources
Fit with current Web/ICT strategy
Other?
16

Resources
BS8878 Community of Practice: http://www.meetup.com/bs8878-web-accessibility
eAccess+:
Project site: http://www.eaccessplus.eu
Information Hub: http://hub.eaccessplus.eu
Ability Centred Design – an emerging research approach (Wobbrock et al, 2011): http://iis.seas.harvard.edu/papers/2011/wobbrock11abd.pdf
17

Acknowledgements
Photo on title slide: Flickr user Nathaniel Boehm
AJAX photo: Flickr user @skwashd
NEWT logo: Rob Winters and Bruce Lawson
BS8878 slides: Jonathan Hassell
eAccess+ is a Thematic Network funded under The EC ICT Policy Support Programme, ref 250568
18

email:dsloan@computing.dundee.ac.uk
twitter:@sloandr
blog:www.58sound.com
work:www.dmag.org.uk --- www.computing.dundee.ac.uk
19

Engaging industry and the public sector in accessible, inclusive design

by David Sloan on May 25, 2011

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

Statistics

Engaging industry and the public sector in accessible, inclusive design Presentation Transcript