Talk delivered to Scottish Usability Professionals' Association on 24 May 2011, focusing on developments in web and ICT accessibility, barriers to adoption and how these can best be addressed.

1. 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?

2. 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

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

4. New (exciting web) technologies David Sloan 24 May 2011 4

5. Accessibility and Inclusive ICT Research 156 Accessibility related projects listed at www.cardiac-project.eu David Sloan 24 May 2011 5

6. 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 David Sloan 24 May 2011 6

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

8. 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 David Sloan 24 May 2011 8

9. 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 David Sloan 24 May 2011 9

10. 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 David Sloan 24 May 2011 10

12. A process which identifies the key decisions which impact accessibility which are taken in a web product’s lifecycle

13. An informed way of making these decisions

14. A way of documenting all of this to ensure best practiceWebProduct Accessibility Statement Organizational Web Accessibility Policy WebProduct Accessibility Policy

15. BS8878: decision support 16 stage process; consider accessibility at each stage Complements WCAG as it standardises a process c/f an end product David Sloan 24 May 2011 12

16. 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 David Sloan 24 May 2011 13

17. 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 David Sloan 24 May 2011 14

18. 3 WHAT ARE YOUR EXPERIENCES AND VIEWS? 15

19. 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? David Sloan 24 May 2011 16

20. 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 David Sloan 24 May 2011 17

21. Acknowledgements Photo on title slide: Flickr user @NathanaelB (http://www.flickr.com/photos/purecaffeine/5399530443/) AJAX photo: Flickr user @skwashd (http://www.flickr.com/photos/skwashd/2415031925/) 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 David Sloan 24 May 2011 18

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