BS8878 launch event presentation - 7 Dec 2010

Standards for the next generation
of accessibility - BS8878
Jonathan Hassell
Chair, BSi IST/45

BS 8878 launch event
7th December 2010

© jonathanhassell@yahoo.co.uk
http://www.meetup.com/bs8878-web-accessibility/

BS8878 – context & history


A brief history of British accessibility standards…
• why did we need a British Standard?
– because we have British law around accessibility
• and not just for public-sector websites, all sites…
– in 2005, research by the British Disability Rights Commission revealed
sites weren’t doing well
• and no existing standards made it easy enough
for site owners to know what to do
• so the DRC commissioned BSi to create PAS-78 to try and help
– a guide to the process of commissioning, producing and maintaining a website
from a site owner’s point of view
– a non-technical person’s guide
to how standards should be used
to help ensure a development project
results in an accessible product
• launched in March 2006, broadly
welcomed by UK site owners


The one constant on the web is change…
• PAS-78 needed updating to handle:
– web 2.0’s much wider purposes for
websites, including:
• the move from informative web content to:
– web as tools (“Software as a Service”)
– web as rich/media-media entertainment
(games, IPTV, eLearning etc.)
• the move from Provider-Produced content,
to User-Generated content (blogs,
Facebook etc.)
– increasing number of devices on which
websites are viewed:
• mobile phones, tablets, IPTV…
– increasing use of non-W3C technologies
– Increasing use of “off the shelf” tools
rather than bespoke development

How we created BS8878
• 3 year’s work
• Created by accessibility experts on IST/45 from:
– BBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Nomensa, Open University, JISC,
Pinsent Masons, University of Southampton, British Computer Society,
COI, IBM, RNIB, United Response, Opera, AbilityNet, Vodafone, RNID
• Reviewed publicly by:
– 328 experts from the UK and worldwide
– Including: W3C, Adobe, experts in personalisation, aging, mobile,
IPTV, inclusive design, user research and testing,
disability evangelism…


BS8878 – setting the scene
Talking about web products
Organizational responsibility and policy
Per product rationale – considering options, justifying reasoning, noting
decisions; all in an accessibility policy
Communication of those decisions


Preamble: why “web products…”?
– not just websites but also workplace apps, RIAs, SaaS, widgets, mobile
apps
– not just web on a computer any more…


Organizational:
the importance of responsibility and BAU policy
– work out whose responsibility web
accessibility is going to be in your
organisation…
– get them to look at the business
reasons why this is important…
• check out OneVoice business cases…
– create an Organizational Web
Accessibility Policy to embed
accessibility into the organization’s
business as usual
• may include where accessibility is
embedded in:
– web procurement policy
– web technology policy
– web production standards (e.g.
compliance with WCAG, browser
support, AT support)


Per product:
making good decisions, at each stage of the process

• every decision taken will affect whether the product will include or
exclude disabled and elderly people
• so every decision should be:
• recognised as a decision
• have all options and implications considered
• made based on justifiable reasoning
• noted in the product’s accessibility policy for transparency
• for every step of the production process


Per product:
communicating your decisions…

• to the user… Why
– through the product’s accessibility that choice?
statement, published as part of the
product

• to check conformance with
BS8878…
– conformance requires:
• address all the recommendations
• justifying any course of actions that
deviates from these
recommendations
• checking the decision processes in
the product’s accessibility policy to
provide evidence of following the
recommendations


First stage: doing the right research &
thinking before you start…
1. Define the purpose of the product
2. Define its target audiences
3. Analyse the needs of the target audiences for the web product
4. Note any platform or technology preferences and restrictions
5. Define the relationship the product should have with its audiences
6. Define the user goals and tasks the web product needs to provide


1. Define the purpose of the web product

– without knowing this, you don’t have a basis
for sensible decisions…
– web 2.0’s much wider purposes for websites,
including:
• the move from informative web content to:
– web as tools (“Software as a Service”)
– web as fun/entertainment (games, IPTV)
• the move from Provider-Produced content to:
User-Generated content (blogs, Facebook etc.)
– the challenges and costs of making products
with different purposes accessible can vary
hugely, eg:
• costs of subtitles, audio-description for video
• can 3D experiential games be truly made
accessible?
• whose responsibility is it to make UGC
accessible?


2. Define its target audiences

• can you • is it designed for a • or will be used by a
predict/control who particular audience? range of audiences?
will use it?
– e.g. an Intranet

– or an extranet


3. Analyse the needs of those audiences for the product

– questions:
• what are their general needs from the user experience of a web product?
• do they have specific needs from the product?
– how are you going to research these needs?
• general desk research into • your own research – surveys,
‘disabled people’s use of the web’ ethnographic research into the context,
preferences and specific product needs
of your audiences
– like you might do for non-disabled
audiences…
– resulting in personas etc.


4. Note any platform or technology preferences/ restrictions
– for example:
• lack of ability to download & install plug-ins or browser updates
• IT policy restrictions in offices, colleges preventing use of browser
preferences, installation of assistive technologies
• strong platform preferences due to worries of cost/complexity/security
– will impact on technology choice, platform choice, reliance on ATs to
mediate website experiences
• cf. rich-media technologies like Flash
and ‘alternative versions’
• accessibility isn’t about luddite-ism, but it is
about understanding what your audience
really need…


5. Define the relationship the product should have with its
audiences

– optimising your product’s relationship with its target audiences…
– is the product going to consider its audiences to be:
• individuals (incl. personalisation functionality, via logins or cookies)
• more general groups of users
– impacts on whether the audience may expect an ‘inclusive’ or
‘personalised’ accessibility approach


6. Define the user goals and tasks the web product needs to
provide

– what goals are your audiences going to come to your product to
achieve?
– are there specific goals which are more important to your different
audiences?
– what goals are core, and what are not?
• e.g. on iPlayer: finding and playing a programme is core…
being able to share it with your friends might not be…
– how will you define your product is successful in enabling its target
audiences to achieve these goals?


Second stage: making strategic
choices based on that research
7. Consider the degree of user-experience the product will aim to provide
8. Consider inclusive design and user-personalized approaches
9. Consider the delivery platforms to support
10. Choose target browsers, OSes and ATs to support
11. Choose to create or procure the product, in-house or contracted-out
12. Define the web technologies to be used in the web product


7. Consider the degree of user-experience the product will aim
to provide

– degrees:
• technically accessible
• usable
• satisfying/enjoyable
– an example for online Pacman:
• Technically accessible
= can control Pacman using a switch
• Usable
= have a chance of winning as the ghosts
adapt to the speed of interaction of my switch
• Satisfying
= have the right level of challenge
– not too easy or too hard
– define the aim for each combination
of user group and user goal
– BS8878 doesn’t tell you what level you should pick, just lets you know
what the options are, and asks you to choose a level you feel you can
justify


8. Consider inclusive design & user-personalized approaches (1)

– non-individualized/inclusive
• accessibility through guidelines, inclusive design, ATs, user-testing…
– user-personalized allows…
• users to specify their needs and then…
– finds a suitable product from a number of alternative versions, or
– adapts the web product to those needs
• often through ‘additional accessibility measures’
– circumstances where a personalised approach could be useful:
• where a ‘one size fits all’ approach doesn’t work for all your target audiences
• if individual relationship with audience is possible/expected (e.g. eLearning)
then a personalised approach might be expected
• for audiences with restrictions on browser, installation etc.
– user-personalized should always complement,
never replace, inclusive design approaches


8. Consider inclusive design & user-personalized approaches (2)

• an example of user-personalized approach:
BBC MyDisplay (coming soon)


9. Consider the delivery platforms to support (1)

– Remember… not just web on a computer any more…



– With different screen sizes…



– And input devices…



– And different capabilities…

XHTML
WAP
CSS
Browser
options
ATs

MHEG


10. Choose target browsers, OSes & ATs to support

– what are you going to do about handling accessibility across browsers,
OSes and ATs?
– the less you have to support, the cheaper…
• each browser has its quirks…
• and different screenreaders can require lots of testing and code workarounds…
– how to decide…
• do you have any ability to control/standardise the browsers, OSes and ATs your
target audiences will use?
– this is do-able for an intranet or extranet, but not for a public site
• if not, how many of the combinations of browser, OS and AT that are available
on your supported platforms is it reasonable to support?
– what’s used by your audiences?
– is it reasonable to ask your audiences to change browser, OS or AT?
• can you use user-personalised approaches like additional accessibility
provisions or alternatives to get around restrictions?


11. Choose to create or procure the product, in-house or
contracted-out

– are you going to create the product in-house, or contract out its creation
– are you going to create the product from scratch, or by selecting and
integrating tools, software, components or services

• if contracting out, how do you ensure that the
supplier is able to deliver to the accessibility
requirements and aims for the product?
– checking out their capabilities
– ensuring the contract includes
the requirements and aims from
your accessibility policy so far


12. Define the web technologies to be used

– what underlying technologies are you going to use to create the web
product?

• if creating the product bespoke, • if you are selecting and
how do you ensure the integrating other tools,
technologies you use will create a components or services, how do
product which is accessible? you ensure that they will allow the
– whether the technology supplies creation of an accessible
techniques for WCAG 2.0 product?
– whether the technology exposes – putting these considerations in
content, structure and the selection criteria
functionality to assistive – especially ensuring any authoring
technologies on the platform tool is ATAG compliant


Third stage: production, launch and
maintenance (lifecycle)
13. Use web guidelines to direct accessible web production
14. Assure accessibility through production
15. Communicate accessibility decisions at launch
16. Plan to assure accessibility in all post-launch updates


13. Use web guidelines to direct accessible web production

– the bit everyone knows…
– using the best accessibility guidelines for the platform
and technology being used…
– including a choice on conformity levels, where they
exist…
– the complications:
• this isn’t just WCAG 2.0…
(although that’s the basis…)
• what about mobile?
• and IPTV?
• and what about older people
– are their needs the same
as disabled people’s?
– BS8878 here is a guide to what
guidelines are appropriate
in each of these cases


14. Assure the product’s accessibility through production
Quality of data
– creating an accessibility test plan
• which testing methods will be used…
• at what points of the production
User testing
process…
Remote testing
– sticking to the plan User reviews / interviews

– when the ideal isn’t possible… Expert walkthrough
Heuristics
making the decision – is it ready to Testing with assistive technologies
launch? Automated testing
• how much accessibility risk are you Cost
happy to accept for launch?
• any mitigating factors? (workarounds,
post-launch fixes)
– how to communicate imperfect
aspects to audiences at launch


15. Communicate accessibility decisions at launch

– communicating all those decisions to your audiences…
– in an easily found accessibility statement on your website

– which your audiences can understand…

Confusing help text: A number of sites
accessed by participants provided help
pages which were so technical that they
were practically useless. Mention of
plugins and cookies resulted in
complete confusion by the users and
apprehension about whether they were
able to follow the instructions given.


16. Plan to assure accessibility in all post-launch updates

– include post-launch accessibility monitoring in your test plan, to ensure:
• updates to the product improve or uphold its accessibility
• updates to your target audiences’ assistive technologies improve or uphold its
accessibility
– ensure all audience feedback re the product’s accessibility is reviewed
and dealt with well
• how to ensure your audience let you know their thoughts
• and how to deal with them…
– ensure the product’s accessibility policy and statement are updated to
reflect this…


BS8878 – next steps
IST/45 want your feedback
Join the BS8878 Community of Practice to give feedback, discuss etc.
Any other questions…


IST/45 want your feedback on BS8878

Is it just for show? Or will it work in the wild?


Join the community…

• a place to:
– feed back on the
standard to those
who wrote it –
IST/45
– find a community of
others who are
trying to embed
accessibility in their
organisation using
BS8878
– ask questions, join
discussions,
suggest meetups &
workshops

• join us at:
www.meetup.com/bs8878-web-accessibility/

jonathanhassell
@yahoo.co.uk


BS8878 launch event presentation - 7 Dec 2010

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