Provides an accessibility quiz and answers, defines accessibility, describes the requirements of Section 508, includes accessible user interface design suggestions, and lists accessibility tools.
30. Example for “ Use variable page and column widths-A” Fixed Width Variable Width
31. Example for “ Use variable page and column widths-B” Fixed Width Variable Width
32. Example for “ Use tab order that makes sense to users” 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 11 12 13 14 15 38 39 40 41 42 43 44
33.
34.
35.
36. Example for “ For Javascript events, such as onMouseover, provide text alternatives”
37. Example of “ Provide a way for users to skip lists of site navigation links” <a href="#main"><img alt="Skip to main content" height="1" width="1" border="0" src="//www.ibm.com/i/c.gif"/></a> . . . <a name="main"><!--Main Content--></a> . . .
38. Example of “ Don’t use unnecessary graphics” http://www.flamingtext.com/
39.
40.
41. Accessibility in R&D Usability Portal http://cww/portal/site/CWW/index.jsp?chid=69da4c9a711eaf00VgnVCMServerd30611acRCRD
42.
43.
44.
45.
Notes de l'éditeur
[introduce speaker (Interface Design and Usability Group, years at BMC, education, years of usability experience)] [introduce other department members] Load BMC CWW site in Internet Explorer http://www.w3c.org http://www.bmc.com http://www.ca.com Screen reader movie http://www.nsf.gov/home/menus/publications.htm http://www.ibm.com, Products, Notebooks http://www.flamingtext.com
This is what we’re going to cover today. Since we only have an hour, we’ll move quickly through these topics. Remember, this is not a presentation; it is a brown bag. Informal, interactive. Please make comments and ask questions as we move along.
This is the purpose of today’s brown bag. Remember when you were in school how much you hated pop quizzes?
Well, they’re back! Take a couple of minutes to answer this accessibility pop quiz. It will give you an idea of your accessibility awareness.
There are a lot of people with disabilities.
One in five Americans has a disability.
The source of this disability is heart disease. Other common American disabilities (from most common to less common) Lifting/carrying 10 pounds Mental disabilities Hearing Seeing Grasping Speaking
Most blind people can’t read Braille. But they can use computers if we design for their needs.
So, almost 10% of us have some kind of color deficiency. And almost no one is truly color blind. That is why it is more correct to say “color deficient.”
The current unemployment rate for Americans is about 6%. If you have a disability, the unemployment rate soars to 70%. It is hard to get work if you are disabled.
So, we talked about how hard it is to get work if you get disabled. If you are lucky enough to get work, you usually get paid less than people who are not disabled.
As a result of being disabled, many of us end up needing government assistance.
Almost half of Americans over 45 have a disability.
And Americans are getting older. See a trend in these statistics? A lot of people have disabilities. They have trouble getting work. Their numbers are increasing.
Here are some definitions.
Who here has heard of Section 508? This is what it is. A regulation for the Federal government. It is spreading to other governments, like state, county, and city. In fact, at least 21 states include all or parts of Section 508 in their procurement requirements.* And I would not be surprised if it spreads to Request for Proposals from companies. They have employees with disabilities, too. * Paciello, M. (2004, June 21). Online extra: A checkup for Section 508. Government Computer News [On-line]. Available: http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/26304-1.html
Keyboard-only access is important because people who can’t see can’t use a mouse. They use screen readers. Also, people who have trouble controlling their hands (like people who have cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy) may be able to use a keyboard but can’t make the fine movements to control a mouse. Users cannot use a keyboard to select the Search button.
Some users can see, but not very well. So they bump up the size of the text on the display. This display shows Medium-sized text.
This display shows the Largest-sized text. If you use variable font sizes, users can make the fonts larger. If you use fixed font sizes, users can’t change the font size.
“ Before” uses the color red to highlight a failed database. People who cannot see or people who are color deficient cannot tell that a database failed. “ After” keeps the red text highlight but supplements it with the word “Failed.” The graphic helps get users’ attention and should also have a programming tag that describes its meaning. This change also improves usability.
This is the familiar ALT tag. You use an ALT tag when you add a graphic to a page. When users mouse over the tag, they see the ALT text. Screen readers read the ALT text to people who have visual challenges. But if the graphic is a chart or a graph, use the LONGDESC tag or a “D” link to describe the meaning of the graphic. The “D” link is a “D” that appears beside the chart or graph and links users to another page with a detailed description of the meaning of the chart or graph.
Multimedia can be challenging to people with disabilities. This is an example of a good design. Users can see and hear the video, listen to only the speech, and read the transcript. The text equivalent is searchable and can be translated to improve internationalization. This is a great idea. There are a lot of Americans with disabilities. And they vote!
This is how you can turn off cascading style sheets in Internet Explorer. And you can use your own personalized style sheet. Some people turn off style sheets because their assistive technology, such as a text-only browser like Lynx, does not use cascading style sheets. With Lynx, users with visual challenges can easily use screen readers or refreshable Braille devices to read Web sites without waiting for graphics or Javascripts to download..
The Summary and Caption tags help orient users who have visual challenges. The Summary provides a detailed explanation of the table. It should explain the MEANING of the table. The Caption is a short label.
Here is a nice introduction to screen readers by someone who uses them all the time.
What we talked about before were requirements based on Section 508. Here are some user interface design suggestions that improve accessibility.
Here is an example of a cascading style sheet. Note that you can set the font size. Here it is Medium. Never set font size to a fixed size, like a certain number of pixels. Users won’t be able to increase the font.
Anyone having trouble reading the text under “Before?” That is because the contrast is bad. It uses black text on a blue background. The “After” text uses higher contrast and is easier to read.
The fixed width does not use all the available space. The variable width uses all the available space.
For fixed widths, when users bump up font size, the page contents don’t get any wider than the fixed width, and there are formatting problems. For variable widths, the page uses the available space and there are no formatting problems. Users who need to use larger fonts can keep the page formatted correctly.
Remember, some people can use only keyboards, not mice. For example, people with visual challenges may use screen readers. Keyboard users tab through a page. So, we have to design the tabs to flow in a way that makes sense. Make sure users can tab to the prompt for an entry field, then the entry field. I did an accessibility test with people who could not see. The designers forgot to put a tab stop on one of the fields. As a result, the screen reader never stopped there and the users could not do the task. They had no chance.
To find out what they can do on a page, screen reader users often tab through the hyperlinks. It is very important to use hypertext that makes sense.
People who have visual challenges have trouble associating prompts with text fields. Screen readers read left to right across a page. You can imagine a person who cannot see trying to figure out which entry field goes with which prompt here. And people who use screen magnifiers have trouble because they can’t see much of the screen at any one time. So, this is a good technique. You assign a label to each prompt and then call the label at the entry field. Screen readers read the prompt with the entry field.
The screen reader reads table cells in a linear fashion from top left to bottom right. It is hard for people with visual challenges to figure out the row and column for a particular cell. They can’t see the row and column headers. So, here is a clever technique to help people who use screen readers. The TH tags set column and row headers. Each TH tag has a unique ID attribute. On each table cell, the HEADER tag calls the ID’s for the column and row headers. The screen reader reads the column and row name for each cell.
Javascript can be a challenge for people with disabilities. Screen readers don’t read Javascript. Text-only browsers, like Lynx, don’t read scripts. If the Javascript brings up a graphic, there is a problem because screen readers can’t read graphics. But, if you are clever, you can work around the Javascript. If users click on Publications, they get a list of the same navigation controls as the Javascript menu from the mouseover. They get an easy-to-use text alternative.
One of the challenges that screen reader users face is that they have to listen to the list of navigation controls on a screen over and over. That’s because screen readers read from top left to bottom right. This page uses a table for layout, so the screen reader starts in the first column, first row and reads all the navigation controls. This can be frustrating to users. For example, here the users has already clicked on “Notebooks” and probably wants to hear about notebooks rather than navigation. There is a clever way to get around this. Right after the IBM logo and ALT tag, IBM inserts a one-pixel graphic that we can’t see, but screen readers read. It is a hyperlink. When users of screen readers click on it, the screen reader goes right to the main content in the middle of the page.
Don’t use unnecessary graphics so you simplify the page for people with cognitive challenges. Also improves page download time. If you have to use less necessary graphics such as spacers or bullets, hide them from screen readers by using ALT=“”
Our competitors are working on making their products more accessible. These links take you to descriptions of their accessibility programs.
Here is what we’re currently doing about accessibility at BMC. For the USPS contract, we are delivering 47 products. Worth up to $8M. $4.5M initially, renewable each year for 6 years. The USPS asked for dates when each of the products would be accessible.
Here is the Accessibility section in the R&D portal. It has helpful information, like the accessibility checklist.
If you want to learn more about accessibility, here are some Web pages you can check out.
Here are some tools that can help you evaluate the usability of your product. Bobby is the most popular one, but it works only on Web pages. Connect Outloud is a stripped down version of the JAWS screen reader that you can use for a limited time. A-prompt: PC utility for evaluating files for accessibility. Provides suggested improvements. LIFT: Evaluate accessibility and usability of up to five Web pages for free, then need to buy the application. Lynx: A free, text-only browser that helps you determine whether your site will work with screen readers. Does not display images. Does not run scripts. Shows table cells in linear fashion. Vischeck: Simulates how people with various color deficiencies will see the colors on your Web site. WAVE: Evaluates accessibility of Web sites. Especially good at showing you order in which screen reader reads table cells used for page layout. Web Page Backward Compatibilty Viewer - Allows you to remove certain tags (such as images and scripts) to see how accessible the page is. And some of the tools are very simple – like printing your page on a monochrome printer to see if you are using color coding alone. Or using your mouse with your non-dominant hand to make sure the selection areas are large.
So, the cheapest and easiest way to make our products accessible is to design in accessibility right from the start. If you are a developer, learning accessibility is a great way to get better at your craft. And no one designs it right the first time, so check your accessibility with the BMC checklist, the tools I told you about, or even do an accessibility test in which people with different disabilities try to use your product to get tasks done. Like a usability test.
This is how you can get a copy of this presentation. Or just send me an e-mail. If you want to get accessibility services, just contact my manager, Tony Haverda. Well, I enjoyed talking to you today. And I hope you enjoyed learning a little about accessibility. Thank you.