Experiencing digital accessibility (FEL 2018)
Sep. 27, 2018•0 likes•245 views
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If empathy is about understanding people, accessibility is about understanding people and the barriers that they face. Getting your own experience of accessibility helps you to put yourself in the shoes of others and keep accessibility in mind when building and testing your sites and applications. In this talk, Jon Gibbins gives a practical introduction to accessibility for front end designers and developers. He will walk through some typical accessibility barriers and situations where an accessible user experience does not necessarily come from simply adhering to accessibility guidelines. Find out how you can easily experience accessibility for yourself using something you likely have in your pocket – a smartphone. Leave with some tips under your belt and a grasp of some technical fundamentals that are often the missing piece of the puzzle for developers' understanding of accessibility.
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Experiencing digital accessibility (FEL 2018)
- 1. Front Endgineers London 19 September 2018 Jon Gibbins
- 3. Photo credits: LG, Gould, Larson, DiC, Apple
- 5. Photo credit: Jon Gibbins with thanks to Drake Music Project
- 7. “Getting your own experience of accessibility helps you to put yourself in the shoes of others and keep accessibility in mind when building and testing your sites and applications” – Jon Gibbins, Nov 2007
- 14. Most of us have a connection to accessibility
- 16. Ageing
- 18. is about understanding people
- 19. is about understanding people and the barriers that they face
- 20. is about understanding disabled people and the barriers that they face
- 21. …is a human right
- 22. …is just good design
- 24. 4 main disability types
- 26. Deaf, deaf, hard of hearing
- 27. limited movement or control
- 32. • Speech output (screen readers) • Braille output • Magnification • Voice input • Switch access
- 33. • Captions • Subtitles • Audio description • Sign language interpretation
- 37. • • •
- 38. •
- 45. 45
- 46. 46
- 48. Writing style • Make your point clear first then explain • One point per paragraph • Use short line lengths wherever possible • Helps people who are deaf, have dyslexia, dementia or other cognitive and learning disabilities
- 50. CAPS • Harder to read (dyslexia) • Shouting, caps can cause different reading by screen readers
- 51. Emphasis “Skip to content” vs “Skip to main content” “con tent” vs “con tent”
- 52. Hyphenation iOS enewsletter “ehneyewsleta” = ˌe njuːsletər (sounds Russian) e-newsletter “ee newsletter” = ˈiːnuːzˌletər (correct) Android enewsletter “eh newsletter” = ˌenuːzˌletər (wrong “e” sound) e-newsletter “ee newsletter” = ˈiːnuːzˌletər (correct)
- 53. Compound words Compound words are commonplace • Homepage • Sitemap • "Signup" announced as "sig–nup" in VoiceOver iOS Spaces and hyphens are your friends.
- 54. Read / Reading “Reeding” vs “Redding” <h2>Get reading</h2> = “Get Redding” <a href="#">Read more</a> = “Red more”
- 55. Date format ambiguity, clarity (e.g. US versus UK) 01 03 2015 could be “1st of March” …or “3rd of January”
- 56. Date format "2013" = “twenty thirteen inches” “Date expected in dd/mm/yyyy format” “millimetres” in some speech engines
- 57. Long numbers Phone numbers Company numbers <span> trick <span>0123</span>4567 CSS 3 speak-as: digits Very poor support but should improve
- 63. 2 main interaction methods
- 64. • • • Interaction methods 1. Explore by touch
- 65. • • • Interaction methods 2. Gesture navigation
- 70. • • • • •
- 80. …you do
- 81. • • • • • •
- 82. …It really needn’t be
- 83. • • • Tips
- 86. • • • • Thanks!
- 87. 87
- 88. • • https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/ • • https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Techniques/ • • https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/ • • https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/conf ormance • • https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/quickref/ References
Editor's Notes
- Good evening, everyone.
- This is relatively new talk based on some old ideas. I’ve been thinking about this for around 5 years now. It encapsulates my take on accessibility. Please excuse my hearing… and my tiredness! Digital accessibility consultant on web and mobile Training, testing, development, UX, mentoring, policy and organisational change Self-taught web developer since 1999 Digital accessibility since 2003 Mobile specialist since 2012 Passionate about accessibility – why? I don’t have a disability as such (wears glasses, APD, bad back) Let me tell you the story of my journey to working with accessibility in mind Short version: “What’s accessibility all about for me?” Many accessibility presentations will kick off with an explanation of what accessibility is all about, why you should be thinking about it. Corporate Social Responsibility. The legal aspects (ADA, 508). The benefits. Proven Return On Investment You may have heard that the Internet’s biggest blind user is Google. Accessibility is good for SEO. Accessibility can save you time and helps make your applications more robust. No, really! Adding accessibility into applications makes automated testing easy. There’s a good case study for the business case from Legal & General (http://www.w3.org/WAI/bcase/legal-and-general-case-study) Developers: Often see accessibility as having to jump through hoops for little gain. It’s such a hassle. Why should I do it? For me: It’s a challenge. It’s on a par with testing, security and documentation. You don’t have to do it, but you should. I think it’s cool! Most importantly, I’ve seen what accessibility can do. I’m going to kick off with why I do accessibility…
- Jon’s earliest experience of “geek” Smart watches / phones: Jon first saw these in a book in the 80s and thought, “Woah, that’s pretty cool!” Technology is cool! But also enabling! LG watch phone: 1.3 inch full touch screen, 3G+ connectivity, video call capabilities, Voice recognition software, Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP, MP3 player.
- Jon’s first experience of accessibility – a talking clock used by his blind mother.
- Jon has a passion for music. He plays guitar, sings, writes songs… At university, he got to work with disabled musicians to develop accessible music composition and performance software. The point is that we need to think outside the box a little. We need to find ways to empathise. And that’s what this experience with disabled musicians did.
- November 2007 Started assembling my accessibility video tour. Needs updating, but still helpful to understand how the technology is used. https://lab.dotjay.com/notes/assistive-technology/videos/
- Why is getting your own experience important?
- Another way to talk about accessibility is through analogies. I like analogies. Any parents in the audience? More on analogies: https://dotjay.com/2007/11/analogies-for-accessibility
- You don’t know what it’s like unless you experience it for yourself. You can get an idea of what it's like from friends, but you don't know it until you become a parent yourself. Experiencing assistive technology for yourself or taking part in disability simulations won’t tell you what it’s like to be disabled. You cannot simulate disability effectively enough to understand what it is like to live with any disability.
- Robin Eames on Twitter last week: https://twitter.com/robinmarceline/status/1039311147738906624 https://twitter.com/robinmarceline/status/1039321725756891136
- Experiencing digital accessibility helps *build empathy* with your users, 20% of which have some form of disability. [Statistic is for England & Wales, 2011] Accessibility is not all about code or compliance; it’s about people.
- Out of interest, do we have people with a disability here today? Jon wears glasses Jon’s mum went blind Jon’s dad has Alzheimer’s disease Jon has friends who are deaf
- How many smart phones in pockets? How many iOS How many Android? Others? Of particular interest to Jon… mobile accessibility: Small screens 40-pixel (7mm+) finger is big on small targets Can be hard to reach some parts of the screen Small text sizes is like having low vision Small input devices Tiny keys Environment (hands-free, noise, rain) Eyes-free usage, e.g. in car, is like being blind More on mobile later.
- I don’t know about you, but everyone I know is ageing. As we get older, we are likely to experience multiple disabilities of different types.
- Who can think of their own story about accessibility? I like to get good balance and something for everyone. What roles do we have in the room? How many developers? How many testers? Who is not technical? Who has some knowledge of accessibility? Who has used a mobile screen reader? WCAG?
- I’m not going to talk about compliance or the law today, unless you ask me to. Inclusion and accessibility is about people, not laws or even just code.
- Important! For me, accessibility is as important as security, or performance, or documenting your code.
- Who are disabled people?
- Blind Screen reader users Need text equivalents for everything Keyboard access is essential Page structure is really important https://youtube.com/watch?v=L962p6fzF7Y Partially sighted Need to be able to control text size Contrast must be good Large areas of white space can be a nuisance
- Hearing loss Deaf = Deaf community ∴ sign language more likely to be first language (BSL instead of English, for example) Need visual equivalents for any audio
- Spinal injury such as paraplegia, quadriplegia Cerebral palsy Parkinson’s disease Mobility impaired Small targets can be difficult to use Might not be able to use a mouse May not even be able to use a keyboard https://youtube.com/watch?v=cSSgndQ5mVs
- Cognitively impaired Remove distractions Break content up into sections Use clear fonts Do not justify text
- Disabled people don’t always fall neatly into the 4 main disability types People have diverse needs Equally, people may use a diverse range of access tech and settings Older users, for example, could fall into any of the above groupings (limited dexterity, hearing and vision) Ageing We are all subject to ageing Spans various disabilities and user groups Often first-time users Note: Older people, like young children, find primary solid color easier to see and draw meaning from than pastel colors, etc. Hidden disabilities Often, we have images of people with extreme disabilities in mind (totally blind, amputees, wheelchair users, totally deaf, etc.) Many of us have mild disabilities (e.g. people who wear glasses) or hidden disabilities Dyslexia Chronic fatigue / pain (fibromyalgia) Epilepsy Photo sensitivity Temporary disability Broken bones, e.g. someone with a broken arm cannot use a mouse. Repetitive strain injury Tiredness
- Situational limitation Hands-free while driving. Hearing a phone call in noisy environments. Touch screen devices in bright light or wet weather. Small keyboards require dexterity. Notice the difference of “limitation” as opposed to “disability” (https://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/wiki/Situational_terminology) Terms like “device disabled” or “situational disability” dilutes the definition of disability and accessibility. Cultural inclusion Language; not everyone understands English. Colours have different meanings or associations all over the world. Red is often associated with stop, errors, or passion in Western cultures. In China, red can relate to celebration or good luck. Even shape and iconography Technology Particular software and hardware requirements or preferences User requirements can be diverse. Technology issues include user preference, for a particular hardware feature, for example. You cannot account for user preference, you can only build for flexibility. Mobile users can be limited by data allowances.
- Vision impairment Uses a screen reader or screen magnifier Physical impairment Only use a keyboard, may use voice recognition software and/or switch access Equally, people may use a diverse range of different access technology and settings
- Deaf or hard of hearing Requires captions for audio content
- Let’s look at a simple example, just to make a point. Text alternatives provide equivalent information for users who cannot access the information in the content (image) The problem: people without vision cannot perceive content without text Screen reader users Text browsers Search engines Low bandwidth users
- Misconception: “I must always add alternative text”
- “Fell logo jiff”
- Note: Decorative and redundant images may also be presented through CSS – no alternative text needed. Use the simple alternative text decision tree
- Another reason that experiencing accessibility is important. It helps you better understand the context.
- Experience is the first step towards understanding. Without experience, poor choices are made. Without understanding, things you design or build may be inappropriate or incoherent. Here’s an example of an incoherent. Photo Just because you add something “accessible”, doesn’t mean that it makes sense. Design stage is important for establishing context and making sense of the answers before they become problems.
- In short, plenty. The guidelines don’t tell you everything. There are some fun things that can go wrong.
- Here’s another example of where someone added something to make life easier for users, but ended up causing havoc. Keyboard access and focus: Logical order is generally left to right, top to bottom Adding tabindex values of >0 can cause strange focus order Generally best to let the order of elements in the source code determine the focus order
- The guidelines don’t tell you everything…
- Use short line lengths: seven to ten words per line (WCAG 80 characters long) Considerations for deaf people WCAG covers subtitles and captioning, and even sign language BUT must realise that for members of the Deaf community, English (or any "native" language) is a second language. Techniques for the The Cognitive and Learning Disabilities Accessibility Task Force (COGA) See W3C COGA Techniques (Working Draft)
- We have language selection in WCAG, but what about pronunciation? Something that often gets missed is the text itself – the words we use. Clear text is essential to providing good user experiences for all users, but especially for users of assistive technology such as screen readers. Using semantic markup helps But screen readers can still get things wrong Notes: Screen reader software takes text found on screen – on a website, for example – and tries to create synthetic speech from it to help people understand what's on the screen. Think of Stephen Hawking's speech synthesizer (http://www.hawking.org.uk/the-computer.html). Problems arise when the software can't quite figure out what is meant by the text it finds. Certain text does not result in clearly understandable announcements from screen readers. While not a requirement under WCAG 2.0, these things should be considered for the best user experience for people who use assistive technologies. Not just an issue for screenreader users, but also people with dyslexia.
- Many compound words have become so commonplace that they have become acceptable in day-to-day use: bookmark grandfather newspaper weekend website
- An interesting thing to note in VoiceOver: it sometimes reads numbers strangely.
- So, accessibility is contextual. How do we best build for accessibility then?!
- Why am I picking out mobile accessibility here? Easily available – iOS and (most) Android devices Quick to learn Good way to get experience of AT Great for quick testing on actual AT “Mainstream” features with accessibility benefits SMS Video calls Voice assistants, such as Siri, Cortana, etc. FaceTime used by deaf people Custom vibrations as ringtone equivalents Speeches given using iPad with Proloquo HueVue app that helps color blind people identify colors Braille: V-B-Reader app (Android) that enables Braille to be read using vibrating touch screens Touch-screen Braille writer Innovative assistive technology that’s useful to all users! Apple’s Siri voice recognition Google Voice’s voicemail transcription Custom vibrations (iPhone setting and Android app)
- Shared experiences comparable to temporary disability in the car (blind) at concerts (hard of hearing) small text (low vision) “fat fingers” on small screens / keyboards (hand tremors) broken bones (crutches) http://www.w3.org/WAI/mobile/experiences Opportunity For users Cheaper technology Easier to learn Easier to access services For business Reaching as wide an audience as possible Reaching untapped spending power
- Modern mobile devices have a wide variety of accessibility features built in, particularly iOS and Android. Let’s just take a look at screen readers.
- We’ll look at “explore by touch” first; gesture navigation is explained in the next slide. Also, more general notes about these interaction methods are in the notes on the next slide. Explore by touch: is spatial requires users to become aware of the layout of a page/screen can be tedious for general use and things can be missed by users but is by far the best way to interact with on-screen keyboards and is a bit like touch typing
- Focus: Slightly different concept on mobile than on desktop. Gesture navigation: is sequential, typically following the reading order of a page/screen allows users to interact with one element of a page/screen at a time, similar to how you interact with the keyboard on desktop applications uses a virtual focus cursor, which is roughly equivalent to keyboard focus and tabbing around an interface often makes more sense to users (provided reading order makes sense) and things are less likely to be missed Both of these methods are now used in iOS and Android Both methods available in iOS since iPhone OS 3 was released with the iPhone 3GS in June 2009 Android TalkBack Explore by Touch mode available since Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) in October 2011 Android TalkBack Gesture mode available since Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) in June 2012 Gesture navigation on Android does not behave in exactly the same way as VoiceOver on iOS, but it is similar These interaction methods are becoming a de facto standard on mobile devices
- We know what assistive technology is, but how does it work?
- Accessibility APIs Often the missing piece of the puzzle for developers' understanding of accessibility. Present user interfaces as information rather than a purely graphical medium, translating an application’s user interface into information that assistive technology can understand Allow an application’s user interface to be changed by the assistive technology Provide a common vocabulary we can use when talking about accessibility
- Accessible object properties provide information which allows multi-modal access to content. Name, role, and state are important properties to be aware of. Accessible Events inform assistive tech about changes to the otherwise static DOM-based representation. For example, virtual buffer in JAWS.
- Accessible object properties provide information which allows multi-modal access to content. Name, role, and state are important properties to be aware of. Accessible Events inform assistive tech about changes to the otherwise static DOM-based representation. For example, virtual buffer in JAWS.
- role: check box name: Open new windows in a new tab instead state: checked
- An accessible name is required and identifies an object. It is short and does not necessarily describe the object.
- So, why isn't this the normal approach to accessibility? I think disability is difficult for some people to think or talk about. People may feel uncomfortable. I think this is down to poor understanding, social stigmas, lack of experience. But there are more problems at play…
- Don’t just be the accessibility guy/gal Shared responsibility Raise awareness Teach Learn
- Think about accessibility as early as possible Bake it into your process, wireframes, etc. Fix accessibility before it hits the screens Documenting accessibility as you go will help future iterations Accessibility more likely to: get baked into prototypes persist through development make it into production at an acceptable level
- Accessibility in continuous integration: code linting, checks as part of release procedures, etc. BS 8878 Not a set of development guidelines Project management roadmap for ensuring that web products are built in an accessible way
- Solutions are contextual – accessibility is contextual. Context is King, especially on mobile. It’s not necessarily about what you know; it’s about knowing what to look up and where.
- Include disabled people in personas Different disabilities, different needs Older people (often first time users) Plan to test with similar people Annotate Fix accessibility before it hits the screens Documenting accessibility as you go will help future iterations Annotate wireframes with accessibility detail Show structure, headings, labels, order Headings Focus order Grouping Structure Colour contrast
- Questions?