What to include on the accessibility help page on your website
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Slide deck from webinar broadcast 27 June 2019 On this webinar AbilityNet Accessibility and Usability Consultants Katherine Talbot and Adi Latif shared advice and information on what you should include on the accessibility help page on your website. Our experts understand the business case for good accessibility practices, but also the legal obligations. An accessibility help page provides a useful stepping stone on a user journey, offers practical help to your customers and shows them that you have thought about their access needs. We see it as an opportunity to communicate to your website users about how you can support them.
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What to include on the accessibility help page on your website
- 1. What to include on the accessibility help page on your website | 27 June 2019 Mark Gaddes – Digital Marketing Manager Adi Latif – Accessibility and Usability Consultant Katherine Talbot – Accessibility and Usability Consultant 27th June 2019 What to include on the accessibility help page on your website
- 2. What to include on the accessibility help page on your website | 27 June 2019 What is digital accessibility, the importance of good digital accessibility practices and our top tips. How to identify what is accessible on your website, why you need an accessibility help page and what to include on the page. • Live captions during the webinar • Slides, a transcript and recording will be made available • Please use the Q&A window to ask questions • Please use the chat window for general conversation • Feedback form to ask any follow up questions post-webinar Welcome
- 3. What to include on the accessibility help page on your website | 27 June 2019 We are a technology charity providing a range of free and paid for services and resources with the goal of removing barriers to inclusion in the digital world. • IT support at home through home visits and remote support, our freephone helpline 0800 269 545, factsheets about adapting technology to meet your needs, on-demand webinars, My Computer My Way – your guide to every accessibility feature on every computer, tablet and smartphone. • Digital Accessibility services including consultancy, design reviews, auditing, accreditation, user testing, training and off-the-shelf products, plus other service areas include our Workplace and Higher Education and Student Services. About AbilityNet
- 4. What to include on the accessibility help page on your website | 27 June 2019 • @Mark Poll 1
- 5. What to include on the accessibility help page on your website | 27 June 2019 What is digital accessibility?
- 6. What to include on the accessibility help page on your website | 27 June 2019 Why be accessible?
- 7. What to include on the accessibility help page on your website | 27 June 2019 • On average 15% of the worlds population have a disability. • 80% of them are of working age. • The purple pound is worth over £249 billion a year in the UK. • People with disabilities are the fastest growing minority group. Good financial sense
- 8. What to include on the accessibility help page on your website | 27 June 2019 Accessible websites can: • Reach a wider audience. • Benefit from improved SEO. • Increase Return on Investment (ROI). • Improve brand reputation. There are 2.3 billion active social media users - good news travels fast but bad news travels even faster! Good marketing
- 9. What to include on the accessibility help page on your website | 27 June 2019 Inclusive design helps everyone Accessible sites are not just for disabled people… Making your website accessible grows your potential audience massively! • Promote equal opportunities. • Design and develop for your future self. • Accessibility should be part of every organisations social responsibility. • It’s the right thing to do!
- 10. What to include on the accessibility help page on your website | 27 June 2019 WCAG 2.1 2018 Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018 USA Section 508 Refresh 2017 European Disability Act 2016 UK Disability Equality Duty 2011 UK Equality Act 2010 Ireland's Disability Act (DA) 2005 Spain's UNE 139803 2004 Japan's Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS) 2004 USA Section 508 of the Workforce Rehabilitation Act 2001 UK DDA starts including software 1999 UK Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1992 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) 1990 It’s the law
- 11. What to include on the accessibility help page on your website | 27 June 2019 RobustUnderstandable OperablePerceivable The W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines cover 4 principles with a combined 78 success criteria for versions 2.0 an 2.1; over 3 levels of compliance - A, AA or AAA. WCAG guidelines
- 12. What to include on the accessibility help page on your website | 27 June 2019 6. Use responsive text sizing and spacing. 7. Provide image alt attributes. 8. Provide subtitles and transcripts for videos. 9. Provide audio descriptions for videos. 10. Use semantic mark-up. 1. Build accessibility into your processes. 2. Use diverse personas. 3. Write in plain English. 4. Use a simple left-aligned layout, with case sensitive text. 5. Ensure good colour contrast. Accessibility considerations
- 13. What to include on the accessibility help page on your website | 27 June 2019 • Offers practical help to your customers. • Shows customers that you have thought about their access needs. • Provides transparency of your strong and weak areas. • Communicates your larger inclusion policy. Accessibility help online
- 14. What to include on the accessibility help page on your website | 27 June 2019 • @Mark Poll 2
- 15. What to include on the accessibility help page on your website | 27 June 2019 • Incorporate accessibility into your processes for all project phases. • Regular maintenance and testing against WCAG accessibility standards. • Communicate to customers what works well as well as what you’re working on improving. • Ask for help and support from your customers with identifying issues, but also feedback on what they like. Accessibility framework
- 16. What to include on the accessibility help page on your website | 27 June 2019 Whilst not compulsory (outside of public sector), many companies choose to provide an accessibility statement on their website, including: • An evaluation of the accessibility of the site. • Which parts of your service do not meet accessibility standards and why. • Alternatives to content that’s not accessible. • How to contact you to report accessibility problems. Accessibility statements
- 17. What to include on the accessibility help page on your website | 27 June 2019 Business case - Kent Council
- 18. What to include on the accessibility help page on your website | 27 June 2019 • Desktop computers and laptops. • Tablets and smartphones - Windows, Mac OSX, iOS, Android and Windows. This unique free resource explains all the accessibility features and how to optimise them available across popular devices: My Computer My Way
- 19. What to include on the accessibility help page on your website | 27 June 2019 Business case - Barclays
- 20. What to include on the accessibility help page on your website | 27 June 2019 1. Provide a clear breakdown of everything you do to make your site accessible. 2. Promote accessibility awards and successes to your customers. 3. Be honest with your customers where there are accessibility issues; provide an alternative route and regular updates on the status of the issues. 4. Encourage your customers to engage with you about their needs regarding your website. 5. Provide free resources to support your customers with digital access. Top tips for your accessibility help page
- 21. What to include on the accessibility help page on your website | 27 June 2019 • GOV.uk accessibility pages • Jiscmail email lists • GDS gov.uk advice pages • IAAP membership + CPACC Useful links
- 22. What to include on the accessibility help page on your website | 27 June 2019 • @Mark Poll 3
- 23. What to include on the accessibility help page on your website | 27 June 2019 Please use the Q&A window, not the chat window The feedback form we will send you after the event includes a question about what further training you would like us to deliver Slides, transcripts and a recording of this webinar will be made available Q&A
- 24. What to include on the accessibility help page on your website | 27 June 2019 Would you benefit from our expert advice? AbilityNet offers a wide range of Digital Accessibility Services tailored to suit your objectives and requirements: • Speak to our experts - https://abilitynet.org.uk/speak-to-our-experts • Updates and news on our website - https://abilitynet.org.uk/news • Join our mailing list - https://www.abilitynet.org.uk/sign-up-for-our-newsletter AbilityNet can help
- 25. What to include on the accessibility help page on your website | 27 June 2019 • Web Accessibility Regulations for UK HE and Public Sector UPDATE: https://abilitynet.org.uk/webinars/web-accessibility-regulations-update • HE Web Accessibility Training Programme, Summer 2019: https://abilitynet.org.uk/web-accessibility-training-programme-summer-2019 • TechShare Pro, the UK’s biggest accessibility and inclusive design event: save the date - 20/21 Nov 2019 hosted by Google in London Upcoming events
Editor's Notes
- Adi’s intro -
- It is almost always significantly easier, more effective, and less expensive to incorporate accessibility early in website development or redesign, rather than retrofit existing sites later. When accessibility is a consideration from design concept and throughout, you often find websites & apps are also more user friendly with a better user experience for everyone! The spending power of families with at least one disabled person is estimated by the Government to be over £249bn a year! That’s a lot of custom companies are missing out on by not being accessible. https://www.scope.org.uk/media/disability-facts-figures http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/business-39040760/the-power-of-the-purple-pound-explained
- Accessible sites are not just for disabled people! They can help everyone - including mobile devices users, older people, those with low literacy, people who are not fluent in the language of the site, people with low bandwidth connections, people with older technologies, and new and infrequent web users. So as you can see, making your website accessible grows your potential audience massively! DID YOU KNOW - Text messages were designed originally to help people who were deaf If you have a ramp outside a building to help someone in a wheelchair it can help someone with a baby in a push chair Screen reader and voice recognition technology is allowing people to use their devices handsfree in cars and to listen to instructions from GPS and to control home entertainment devices such as Siri and Amazon Echo Good colour contrast helps people using mobile device which may be viewed in different outdoor/ indoor environments Having online books saved as text and not as images allows screenreader user to read them but also allows those book to become indexed and searchable.
- *Notes for ADI – this slide displays a timeline as follows: 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act 1992 UK Disability Discrimination Act 1999 UK DDA starts covering software too 2001 USA Section 205 of the Workforce Rehabilitation Act 2004 Spain’s UNE 139803 2004 Japanese Industrial Standards 2005 Ireland’s Disability Act 2010 UK Equality Act (replaces DDA) 2011 Disability Equality Duty (replaces Public Sector Equality Duty) 2016 European Disability Act 2017 USA Section 508 refresh 2018 – Web content accessibility guidelines 2.1, not the law but due to the UK Disability Equality Duty 2011 there is a requirement for public sector organisations to adhere to WCAG 2.1. 2018 - The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018. The Minister for the Cabinet Office makes these Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by section 2(2) of, as read with paragraph 1A(3) of Schedule 2 to, the European Communities Act 1972. Not complying with accessibility requirements can result in significant legal costs and have negative impact on the organization's reputation. In 1998 the U.S. Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to require Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology (EIT) accessible to people with disabilities. This amendment is known as Section 508. Within a few years, many were already calling for a refresh of these standards to better align with the quickly evolving IT landscape. In 2006, the refresh process was initiated, the final report was delivered on April 3, 2008. [Long Pause] Over 8 years later, after numerous drafts, revised drafts and periods of public comment, we finally have an approved final rule. In the UK the Disability Discrimination Act came into force in 1992, and much like America we quickly realised with times changing and technology taking leaps and bounds; we needed to update it. The Equality Act 2010 replaced the DDA and now enforces accessibility standards both on & offline. The RNIB have used these laws to prosecute companies for failing to comply. UK Disability Equality Duty was developed in order to harmonise the equality duties across Public Authorities whereas the Equality Act of 2010 covers all industries) and to extend it across the protected characteristics. It covers nine protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. Countries within the EU are protected by the European Accessibility Act since 2016. In America Netflix, Disney and Target have all faced lawsuits alleging their websites offer poor accessibility for the disabled under the American Disabled Act. Target ended with a $6million payout In the USA - More than 240 businesses nationwide have been sued in federal court since the start of 2015. Wherever in the world, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) set the main international standards which are upheld by each countries individual laws. So as you can see accessibility really is a world wide concern, with a standard set of best practice principles.
- The W3C is an international group that determines the protocols and standards for the web. They create the specifications for HTML, CSS, etc. – they are a technical standards body. A primary initiative of the W3C is to develop accessibility standards. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) addresses Web content, and is used by developers, authoring tools, and accessibility evaluation tools. WCAG 2.0 places only four principles at the top level under which there are 61 more specific guidelines which are broken down further into testable success criteria. These four principles can each be referred to by a single keyword: Perceivable - Ensuring that everyone is able to perceive your content even if they access information in a non-typical way. Operable - Allowing users to operate your site or app using a variety of methods and tools. Understandable - All your content should be clear and concise, allowing users to explore at their own pace. Robust - Ensuring that content can be accessed across multiple devices and various technology releases. Since June 2018 WCAG 2.1 has been released and uses the same conformance model as WCAG 2.0 with some additions. It is intended to cover gaps in three main areas: mobile technology, cognitive disabilities, and low vision. There are 17 new success criteria, 12 of which are at A and AA level.
- 1. Accessibility shouldn’t be an after-thought - ensure to consider accessibility throughout each part of a project from design to build to testing as this will save money, time and lead to a better product. 2. Use personas of people with situational, temporary and permanent disabilities to understand the diverse needs of your customers and ensure to have your App and website user tested by people with disabilities when possible. 3. Write in plain English at the level of which a 9 year old child could understand your content. This is because the average level of literacy in the UK is of a 9 year old child so keeping your content simple will help everyone and especially people with learning difficulties and for people who don’t speak English as their first language. 4. Ensure not to justify text or right in all capitals as this makes it hard to read for everybody especially people with dyslexia. 5. Ensure you have good colour contrast making it easy to read the content by people with low vision and also any users accessing your webpage/ app when out in the sun. 6. Insure people can change the size of the text on your webpage Tip 6: Quick test by using the built in text increasing/ decreasing feature of your browser, see if you are able to increase or decrease the text on your webpage. 7. Provide descriptions to every image using alt text– decorative images should have an empty alt so they can be ignored by screen readers. This includes adding captions for images on social media. 8. provide subtitles and transcripts for video content as this helps people who are hard of hearing and for people who may not have English as their first language or the 4 million non-disabled users who use subtitles according to the ODI. Transcripts for videos especially helps people who are deaf and blind as they can convert the text to braille and read the content. Tip 8: Quick test- Close your ears and watch your video does it make sense if not provide subtitles and a transcript 9. Provide audio description for any video content which relies on someone being able to see the screen. Audio description is an additional audio track describing to someone who is blind what is visually happening on the screen. Tip 9: Quick test- Close your eyes and listen to your video does it make sense without seeing? If not provide audio description or rewrite the script so that it doesn’t rely on sight alone 10. When possible ensure to use native html elements such as buttons, links and select boxes as they are inherently accessible with assistive technologies such as screen readers. If you need to develop custom elements insure they are accessible by the keyboard and have the appropriate ARIA support which will insure they are accessible by assistive technology. HTML is a preferred format to PDF however if you need to use PDF insure it is tagged correctly for accessibility.
- Why do you need an accessibility help page? Setting expectations Of course we want every site on the web to be accessible but you can have an accessibility page even if your site isn't accessible. It's not a legal obligation - more of a way to deliver a better customer experience. Having an accessibility help page doesn't make a site compliant or accessible, but a good accessibility help page can make your site more usable and could encourage people to choose you instead of the competition. An accessibility page gives you a chance to warn people if you know there are parts of the site with accessibility issues or which have been difficult to adapt. It also gives you chance to offer alternatives, such as a customer support telephone number. Help as much as you can Imagine a relatively wealthy, recently retired couple planning their first luxury cruise. They don't consider themselves disabled, but when thinking about a cruise they have all sorts of questions about the facilities and adaptations which may help make the experience more comfortable. Like many older people they are comfortable using a tablet computer to browse websites but often have a problem with small text, scrolling images and forms that are hard to use. Of course it also makes sense for the site to be accessible. The law says it should comply with the WCAG 2.0 guidelines but in a competitive market it needs to be designed and tested with the needs of these customers in mind. Some of the target market will be using assistive technology, whether that is voice over to compensate for a visual impairment or an alternative mouse due to arthritis. Just as the people joining the cruise will remember the help they get from attentive staff, their first experience of the company may well be a website which also caters for their needs and makes them feel welcome. It makes sense for the cruise companies to think about accessibility and making sure that people have the help they need to use their site - or risk seeing them switch to a competitor.
- It’s great to tell your customers what’s what, but you need to ensure the infrastructure is in place behind the scenes so that the processes work.
- What to include in your accessibility help page 1. Compliance statement Many sites use the accessibility help page to state that they comply with WCAG 2.0, which is the internationally-accepted minimum standard for web site accessibility. UK law requires AA compliance, so the statement is seen as fulfilling a legal obligation. Even if the site is fully accessible this is helpful, as it reassures the site user that common features should be available to all, but there is more to it than that. Of course it is best to be working towards compliance, but where you know something on your site isn't fully accessible it is an opportunity to provide alternatives. Imagine how frustrating it is to be trying to use a service which the site owner knows cannot work for you - where it may well be better to offer customer support by phone. Not sure how compliant your site is? Speak to your web team, or ask an external expert like AbilityNet to conduct a test and provide some suggested wording. Or you can conduct simple single page tests using something like WAVE from WebAim at wave.webaim.org - you just enter a webpage address and discover how many accessibiliy issues it contains. Some of them will be easily solved, like adding Alt Tags to images, whilst others may be more difficult to unpick, but at least you know where you stand and have an idea of the barriers your customers face. 2. Help with accessibility features Think about the customers that may need your help to complete their user journeys. Many will be using a smartphone or tablet instead of standard browser and desktop PC and most will not know about the ways in which they can adjust their device to suit their needs. Somewhere in the settings they may well be able to increase text size, add voice output or increase colour contrast - that may make the difference between sticking to your site or going elsewhere. That's why we recommend a link to My Computer My Way, a free tool that explains all the accessibility features built into common desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones. You can link to it for free, but if you don't want to people to leave your site it's also possible to embed that information within your site, branding it to your look and feel - there's more details about this elswehere on our site. You may also have specific tools that help people use your site. For example AbilityNet uses BrowseAloud, which reads content to people who are dyslexic or have others reasons for needing help with reading content. We link to the software in various places on our site and we include details in our accessibility help page. 3. Feedback mechanism A final part of the jigsaw is to encourage feedback from customers. Make it easy to get in touch so that people choose you instead of your competitors - and listen to what they have to say about their experience. Of course this is good practise for many other reasons but in terms of accessibility it encourages people to highlight issues they have using your service. You can also tell people about other ways of using your service, such as email or phone, or even face-to-face alternatives.
- Here’s some snippets from the Kent Council’s Accessibility page online… I just want to draw your attention to the fact that they have: Clearly listed ways they make their site accessible – navigation, listening, audio, video, etc. Provided their customers with the tools to optimise their device to suit their abilities with MCMW. Given an overview of how they conform to accessibility standards, the level of testing they do; and what known issues there are. Opportunities for their customers to get in touch.
- My Computer My Way was developed by AbilityNet with support from Microsoft and the BBC as a source of accessibility help for all computer users. My Computer My Way enables people to adapt their computer to suit their needs; such as changing the colours and text size or using voice activation.
- Barclays have gone 1 step further and incorporated MCMW into their online accessibility help; using our resources and combined knowledge to create an in house help centre for Barclays customers on getting their devices to work for them.