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Accessibility in the Engineering Village CSUN 2019
The document discusses the ongoing efforts and strategies of Elsevier's Engineering Village to enhance accessibility, focusing on user experience and feedback through various testing methods. It highlights the collaborative approach involving UX design, product management, and customer inquiries to ensure compliance with accessibility standards, notably WCAG 2.0 AA. Key outcomes include successful user testing, continuous improvement initiatives, and maintaining customer trust through transparent accessibility statements and documentation.
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Accessibility in the Engineering Village CSUN 2019
- 1. March 13, 2019 TedGies Jay Nemchik Heather Singleton CSUN 2019 Accessibility in the Engineering Village accessibility@elsevier.com
- 2. • About Elsevierand Engineering Village • Maturing accessibility over time • Today’s collaborative process • Example user study findings • Customer Inquiries • Highcharts Demo • Q&A
- 3. About Engineering Village Heather Singleton,Sr UX Specialist h.singleton@elsevier.com
- 4. Engineering Village –the first choice of engineers Academics, government institutions, business researchers, and practicing engineers gain an immediate advantage with access to today's most authoritative engineering research, with enhanced user features, that provide deep insight into published engineering work and related disciplines. Engineering Village offers access to 12 engineering literature and patent databases providing coverage from a wide range of trusted engineering sources. The databases have been carefully selected to provide both breadth as well as depth of content.
- 5. 12 Years Maturingour Process One A11y Person in the Village • First VPAT created for CSU customer • Lack of defined process A11y gets Important • Customers really want accessible databases • UX Lead liaises between Ally, Dev, and Product Management • Product director A11y Agrees to go for it! A thriving Village • A11y Team /Dev weekly • Adoption of WCAG 2.0 Level AA • Full A11y service package • Annual VPAT Reviews • Usability Testing (AT Users) Village expands • Welcome Pendo! • Accessible Highcharts • Updates to Sales, Marketing, Dev, UX, QE • Achieved 0 WCAG 2.0 AA ‘Does not Support’ 2008 2011 2017 2018
- 6. Feature lifecycle... ittakes a village! For updates or new features, our user experience team works closely with customers and internal experts to ensure accessible design. Our product management team makes accessibility a priority when consulting with the user experience group to make decisions on features, while our engineering team strives to correctly implement features based on accessibility standards. Feature UX & Testing Product Mgt. Development Customers
- 7. Overall process... continuous DevelopmentImplementation Evaluation Update Consultation Production Yearly VPAT evaluation
- 8. Process and Accessibility Service Package JayNemchik, UX Specialist II j.nemchik@elsevier.com
- 9. Start of EngineeringVillage A11y Work • New visual redesign of Engineering Village was implemented. • Redesign was a good time to fully embrace accessibility. • Incremental remediation began. • Accessibility user testing.
- 10. User Testing –Screen Reader Users • Gathered 6 users to participate in user testing. Two low vision users and four blind users. − Good consensus overall for the tasks. − Many of the concerns and barriers brought up during testing end up being items the accessibility team was already aware of. − Still beneficial to perform user testing despite issues that may exist. − Keyboard operability with custom dropdowns – affirmation of the no-brainer issues. − Expected keyboard interaction with links vs buttons – issues that may only come up in user testing. − Show value in testing with users at all phases. Example Dropdown:
- 11. User Testing –Low Vision Users • The in-person session was very valuable, as it was our first time doing a user session in-person with a low vision user. − Content spaced far apart. − Labels far away from their input fields. − No responsive view. − If something was happening on a different part of the screen, it was difficult to notice when zoomed in so much.
- 12. VPAT and ContinuedProcess • User testing completed and feedback was incorporated into remediation meetings. • VPAT completion a month later. • Continuous improvement throughout 2018 and VPAT revision saw a noticeable improvement. − No WCAG 2.0 AA fails.
- 13. 2017 2019Jun AugOct Dec Feb Apr Jun Aug Oct Dec Responding to Customer Inquiries Weekly Issue Remediation Site Rebrand VPAT Deque Review Jay IAAP 3rd Party Collab Alexa Training Complete Global Header Reviews VPAT Revision Service Package Support Page Present Reports Competitive Analysis Meet with 3rd Party Fix List Initial Review User Testing
- 14. 2017 2019Jun AugOct Dec Feb Apr Jun Aug Oct Dec Responding to Customer Inquiries Weekly Issue Remediation Site Rebrand VPAT User Testing Deque Review Jay IAAP 3rd Party Collab Alexa Training Complete Global Header Reviews VPAT Revision Service Package Support Page Present Reports Competitive Analysis Meet with 3rd Party Fix List Initial Review No major issues found 0 WCAG 2.0 Fails
- 15. Service Package (Separate jobfrom weekly remediation work). The individual parts of our service package attempts to address potential business needs. 1. VPAT 2. Fix List 3. Scorecard 4. Support Page 5. Remediation Form
- 16. VPAT “Where does theproduct stand on 508 compliance?” - Customer
- 17. Fix List “Where dowe start with all of these issues?” - Developer
- 18. Scorecard “Overall, how arewe doing?” – Product manager Executive Summary – Pitch on the general state of a11y and comparison to previous years.
- 19. Support Page “What isthe product’s statement on Accessibility?” – Customer / Procurement
- 20. Remediation Form “What isthe roadmap for implementing accessibility fixes?” – Customer
- 21. Future Potential Additions– Competitor Analysis? “How does the product compare to other similar products?” – Customer / Product Manager
- 22. 19.03.2019 CUSTOMER INQUIRIES Ted Gies,UX Lead Specialist ted.gies@elsevier.com
- 23. Customer Accessibility Questions •Does Elsevier have an accessibility statement? • Do you have a VPAT? • Do you have a timeline for full compliance? • Are there workarounds? • Would your team be willing to meet with our accessibility team? • Can you demo compatibility with a screen reader? • Are your textbooks available in an accessible format?
- 24. Accessibility in LicenseLanguage “Licensor represents and warrants that the Licensed Products comply with the accessibility guidelines of Section 508 and (WCAG 2.0 Level AA), Furthermore, Licensor agrees to promptly respond to and resolve any complaint regarding accessibility of the Licensed Products which is brought to its attention.” “I am gathering 508 Compliance Policies for our Institution and I have not found anything about it on Elsevier's website. Would you please provide Elsevier's 508 Compliance Policy?” ‘Contractually obligated to fix’‘Check the Box’ 2011 2018 TOFROM Big 10 Library Standardized Terms
- 25. Customer Response StrategyUsing Enablement Tools Prioritize Long Queue Outcomes Ability to prioritize Management funding License Language (Ts & Cs) Need Agreements signed Build Trust Decrease risk of policy violations Goodwill Learn from customer Enablement Tools Customer Inquiry Spreadsheet Revenue at stake/perceived risk Elsevier standardized language Accessibility expert talking to sales Honest, quality VPATs Company Policy/Statement Accessibility Statement Calls with external A11y team Compliance Questions More Active Better relationship Accessibility@Elsevier.com VPAT Updated Annually Remediation Form
- 26. Conclusions • Engineering Villagehas integrated accessibility into virtually every aspect of development including 3rd party content providers. • It takes a “Village” to make it all happen, not just 1 person can do it all. • We continue to improve the product with several channels of feedback including (user testing, Big 10 library audits, Higher Ed a11y groups). • Our open and collaborative approach has led to several big wins, including keeping strategic customers and achieving 0 WCAG 2.0 AA Does not Support. • Customers appreciate our honest, open approach to VPAT documents and continuous improvement. • 3rd Party content is also accessible due to friendly collaboration
- 27. EV Working With3rd Parties Elsevier Product Owner 3rd Party Product Manager Champ Pushes vendor as a product priority Asks for roadmaps Shares VPAT/Audit Adds to monthly agenda call Connects Tech/PM with Elsevier A11y Team
- 28. Engineering School Profile– Highcharts demo Engineering School Profile on EV
- 29. Links and Resources •Elsevier Accessibility Checklist http://romeo.elsevier.com/accessibility_checklist/ • Engineering Village https://www.engineeringvillage.com • Engineering Village Accessibility Statement and VPAT https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/engineering-village/features/accessibility • RELX Group Accessibility Policy https://www.relx.com/~/media/Files/R/RELX- Group/documents/responsibility/policies/accessibility-policy-2019.pdf • Highcharts Accessibility Module https://www.highcharts.com/docs/chart-concepts/accessibility accessibility@elsevier.com
Editor's Notes
- #4 Some information about me.
- #8 In order to stay up to date on standards and ensure an accessible website, we are working through a process which may involve developing and implementing new features or updates to current features, evaluating those features for any accessibility issues, updating our documentation and code-base, consulting when needed with our experts at Elsevier, and finally releasing to the customers via our production environment. It should be noted that this is all part of an AGILE process with continual updates. Breakdown: 1) Development: Our development team works with UX and standards to implement accessible code. 2) Implementation: The code is implemented internally in our certification environment. 3) Evaluation: QA and UX are responsible for evaluating any issues with the code. 4) Update: the code may or may not be updated, based on the evaluation. 5) EV works with our internal ELS experts to consult on any issues with implementation. 6) Production: code is released to production environment (public). Any of these steps may be happening at any given time. For instance, there may be a consultation after production, which will trigger the process. Or, there may be an evaluation of an existing feature that may trigger the process based on updated standards. Every year, we do a full evaluation using the VPAT on our site. From this evaluation, we do this process more site-wide (as opposed to feature-specific) in order to make any additional accessibility updates that may have been missed or broken throughout the year.
- #9 Some information about me.
- #10 EV team came to us and wanted a review of the redesign and an eventual VPAT.
- #11 Some users had issues navigating Webex, getting their screen shared, or having their screen reader audio come through.
- #12 Seeing how the low vision user interacted with the site was very enlightening. Flaws in certain design choices became very apparent when seen by a low vision user.
- #26 With the increasing numbers of customers and customer types asking for accessibility during RFP and renewal, we’ve had to adapt our response strategy by expanding our toolset and capability. For example: The goal is to be prepared so that we can
- #29 Engineering Deans, Department Chairs and Librarians manage and analyze the research output from engineering schools by tracking new publications, authors and topic trends. Yet, creating reports summarizing research activity for an institution can be time consuming and a challenge to find comprehensive data. Solution: Create an Engineering School Profile (ESP) page for Compendex customers that summarizes research output for engineering schools. Benefits: Engineering Deans and Chairs have access to school reports on-demand and can share via email and download to include within reports and presentations Librarians can utilize the profile to do outreach and engagement with other stakeholders on campus The charts are engineering-focused. By utilizing Compendex data to generate the reports, users have creditable and comprehensive engineering output report data (190 engineering disciplines!) Reports can be customized by engineering subject area and date range to meet university reporting needs