Why is eAccessibility always thought about in terms of compliance with standards like WCAG? What happens when you consider the needs of disabled and elderly people as a challenge to be more innovative? Inclusion expert Jonathan Hassell's QITCOM-12 gives examples of what can happen when organisations embrace innovation through inclusion. More detailed examples available from: http://www.hassellinclusion.com/2011/10/beyond-inclusion-and-reverse-inclusion/

1. eAccessibility:
Compliance towards Innovation
Prof Jonathan Hassell
Director, Hassell Inclusion ltd.
QITCOM 2012 eAccessibility Panel
Tues 6th March 2012

2. Thinking of eAccessibility as Compliance is okay…
It gets rid of some of your legal and reputational risks

3. But it’s not the key to your success…
And, without thinking of the people you’re helping,
it’s not exactly exciting…

4. How to flourish in the wild west…

5. Innovation…

6. Great
innovations
User-focused innovation…

7. Listening to your diverse audiences need’s…
identifies challenges…
but innovation often follows a challenge

8. How disabled & elderly people can free you from fixation…

9. Opportunities:
mainstream inclusion vs beyond inclusion

10. Follow the stats to find the greatest audiences..

11. Don’t be afraid of doing things for disabled audiences

12. You can reap big benefits: OXO Good Grips
• Well-known pioneer of Inclusive Design in
the USA
• Sam Farber’s wife, a keen cook, suffered
from arthritis
“Why do ordinary kitchen tools hurt your
hands?”
• First 15 products launched in 1990
• Sales growth over 35% per year from 1991 to
2002
• The line has now grown to over 500
products
• Over 100 design awards received
Centre for Business Innovation
“Connected Communities, helping you Do more with Less” - 12 - Engineering Design Centre
© 2011 Centre for Business Innovation Ltd

13. How listening to your users can
prompt innovative thinking
- case study: MyDisplay for the BBC

14. Comment: at 08:24am on 14 Jul 2010, thrifty
wrote:
* The background colour is forced to white -
high contrast contributes to eye strain &
headaches. Perhaps a light grey would help
here?
Comment: at 08:05am on 14
Jul 2010, chris b wrote:
…
Awful 'UK News/World New'
panel - … Terrible contrast
too between the text and
dark background.
The problem which kicked off MyDisplay?
How the BBC News redesign couldn’t win…

15. MyDisplay initial purpose:
A way of turning complaints into positive user
experiences

16. Before starting: assess the business opportunity/risk
– how many people could have these difficulties in the
UK?
2m 1.9m 1.8m 80k
low-vision dyslexic adults with cognitively
but not blind low-literacy impaired
levels (ADHD,
(<age 8) Aspergers)
Sources: DFEE

17. Looking for links with a wider picture:
– the gap in Internet use in the UK
67% 42%
of the general population have of disabled people have
ever used the internet used the internet
Could this issue be constraining UK Internet take-up...?
Sources: EEDP (2008) and ONS (2007)

18. Explaining the gap...
– our accessibility model expects too much of users...
1. an Assistive Technology or OS/browser setting to exist to make
the site accessible to all
• often they don’t (e.g. text to sign language, text to ‘Easy Read’)
2. if it does, the model expects web users to:
a. be aware that the Assistive Technology or OS/browser setting/tool exists
to meet their need
• (even with sites like BBC My Web My Way to point the way) most are not
b. be able to afford that technology
• most are C2DE so have difficulty affording expensive techs
c. be able to work out how to install it
• most are not technical (don’t know what a browser is)
and scared of downloads
d. be able to work out how to use it
• most are unconfident
e. and then be able to use it to access online content
• most never get this far, even if the site is WCAG AAA...
• … and to do this for every device on which they use the web

19. Resulting product:
Two clicks to preview a change…

20. Three more to tweak and save your theme…

21. And the rest of BBC Online (incl. mobile) uses your
preferences… that’s it…

22. Works in Arabic too...

23. How linking new technologies & unmet needs
can create great products
- case study: uKinect

24. In use
Watch the video
at:
http://www.ukinect.co.uk

25. I’m happy to help you get things moving…

26. How I can help – research to find user-needs

27. How I can help
– collision for ideas generation & incubation

28. How I can help – finding you the right experts

29. Innovation
Training & supportfor embedding
Standards
Strategy &research
www.hassellinclusion.com

30. e: jonathan@hassellinclusion.com
t: @jonhassell
w: www.hassellinclusion.com