Whether it’s cognitive, audial, visual or tactile, designing a digital experience that’s as pleasing for people with disabilities as for those without can seem like a daunting issue. Learn more about the how’s and why’s of designing and testing for accessibility.

1. Accessibility Isn’t Enough – Designing
Digital Properties to be Usable and
Accessible For All
AccessWorks and UserZoom | Usability Tes7ng with People with Disabili7es

2. Quick Housekeeping
• Control panel on the side of your screen if you
have any comments during the presentation
• Time at the end for Q&A
• Today’s webinar will be recorded for future
viewing
• All attendees will receive a copy of the
slides/recording
• Continue the discussion using #uzwebinar
Let’s make sure you’re all set up for the webinar!

3. Agenda
Intro / Housekeeping
WEBINAR SPEAKERS
What is Accessibility (Sharron)
Including PWD in Usability Testing (Jayne)
UserZoom Accessibility Studies (Ann)
Q&A
1
2
3
4
5
Jayne Schurick
Software Consultant
Usability Engineer
Knowbility.Org
Sharron Rush
Executive Director
Knowbility.Org
Ann Rochanayon
Sr. Director UX/CX
Research
UserZoom

4. What is Accessibility?
And why is it important?

5. The Web is Meant to Transcend Barriers
● Platform
● Operating system
● Formats
● Browser
● Device
● Distance
● Language
● Ability
Regardless of differences …

6. Accessible
People with disabilities
…can acquire the same information
…participate in the same activities
…actively produce as well as
consume online content

7. Why Advocate for Accessibility?
Legal
Technical
Market
Humanitarian

8. It’s All About People

9. Four Principles of Accessible Content
• Perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. Cartoon shows four colorful characters. First is a man with dark glasses saying “I can perceive it.”
Next a fellow with one arm in a sling who says “I can use it,” then a woman with a lightbulb over her head saying “I can grasp it,” and finally a woman
holding a smart phone saying “I can access it.”
…across the broadest possible spectrum

10. Poll Question: Does your organization
perform accessibility testing?
● Yes
● No

11. Common Barriers
• Structure
• Reading order
• Keyboard
• Text alternatives
• Color and contrast
• Link text
• Multi-media

12. Structure
• Use semantic structures as intended
• Use for semantic meaning, not visual presentation
• Explicit form id and label
• Outline structure with HTML 5 regions or ARIA landmarks

13. Reading and Focus Order
• Reading order reflects code order
• Logical tab order – top to bottom, left to right
• Page titles uniquely describe page content
• Alerts and error messages receive focus

14. Visible Keyboard Operation
• Allow all functional elements to be reached and activated from the keyboard
(often tab and arrow keys)
• Make keyboard focus as clearly visible as mouse hover states

15. Text Alternative Basics
All image elements must have alt text
(alt attribute of img element)
• Brief informative descriptions for meaningful
images
• Empty alt attribute <alt=“”> for decorative
images – or use CSS background
• Identify target of linked images
• Fully describe complex images like charts, graphs
• Decision tree from WAI Tutorial

16. Color and Contrast
• Avoid using color as ONLY method to
denote a state or requirement
• Provide contrast of text against
background of 4.5 to 1 or higher

17. Link Text
• Specify link target (where the link goes, what it does)
• Text should make sense out of context (not “More” or “Click here”)
- OR -
• Use aria-describedby to make an association available to assistive technology

18. Media
• Keyboard operable media player
• Caption audio content of video and
synchronize to onscreen actions
• Describe meaningful video content in audio
description track or text transcript.

19. Preliminary Training
• During develop, QA etc, include accessibility testing
• Easy Checks from W3C

20. Poll Question: What is your experience with
usability testing with people with disabilities?
● No experience
● 1- 4 studies
● 5 -10 studies
● 10 - 20 studies
● More than 20 studies

21. Include People with
disability in usability tests
• Reach out locally to disability
organizations
• Remote testing using AccessWorks

22. Why Include PWD in Usability Testing
• Find accessibility issues
• Find usability issues exacerbated by disability
• Set priorities for redesign
• Make it real (human face)
• Certification or other requirement

23. When to Include PWD
• Before and/or after manual accessibility testing
• Prior to redesign
• Whenever you do a usability test

24. What You Can and Can’t Learn
• Will identify usability issues, especially those faced by PWD
• Won’t identify all accessibility issues, only those that are encountered when performing
your tasks

25. Types of Issues
• Page structure
• Do users know where they are?
• Can they navigate/find what they’re looking for?
• Reading and focus order
• Is the reading/navigation order logical?
• Do alerts and error messages receive focus?
• Keyboard navigation
• Can users reach all functional elements (links, buttons, form fields)?
• Is the keyboard focus visible?

26. Types of Issues
• Link text
• Are link targets clear and do they make sense out of context?
• Text alternatives
• Do images, graphics, pictures, and icons have descriptive alt-text?
• Do decorative images have empty alt-text?
• Color and contrast
• Is color alone used to convey meaning?
• Is contrast sufficient?

27. AccessWorks
• Online panel of people with disabilities (PWD)
• People who are blind or have low vision,
a physical/motor impairment, hearing
impairment, and/or cognitive impairment
• People who use a variety of assistive
devices, including screen readers,
screen magnification software,
alternative input devices, keyboard only, etc.
• People with a variety of demographics
and computer skills

28. AccessWorks: How it Works
• Send email to access-works@knowbility.org with subject “Testing Platform Inquiry”
• Tell us your requirements and schedule
• Set up your test in UserZoom
• Collect data and report!

29. Prior to Testing
• Do a basic accessibility audit
• E.g., text alternatives, headings,
contrast, text resizing, keyboard
access, visual focus, etc.
• See WAI Easy Checks
https://www.w3.org/WAI/eval/
preliminary

30. UserZoom
Accessibility Studies

31. Poll Question: What do you feel is your
company’s biggest barrier to including
people with disabilities in usability testing?
● Don’t know how to identify/recruit them
● Unsure how to accommodate them in the lab
● Intimidated by communication barriers
● Other

32. UserZoom Accessibility Studies
• Surveys
• User Feedback Monitoring (Voice of the Customer)
• Task-Based Studies

33. UserZoom Accessibility Studies - Supported Question Types

34. UserZoom Accessibility Studies - Task Based
• Task-Based Usability Studies
• Types of Task-Based Studies
• Quantitative Studies
• Qualitative Think Aloud Studies
• Types of Data Collected
• Survey Data
• Task Effectiveness (Success, Non-Success)
• Task Efficiency (Time, Clicks, Page Views)
• Clickstreams, heatmaps
• Videos Screen Recording (optional audio)

35. UserZoom Best Practices
• Large sample sizes isn’t necessary
• Inform participants about the structure of the study
• Use fewer tasks
• Use open-ended survey questions
• Do a “tech check”

36. Types of Tasks
• Directed Tasks
• “Select the red sweater in size medium”
• “Select ‘Buy Now’
• Open Tasks
• “Buy a sweater”

37. Directed Tasks: What You’ll Learn
• Test specific areas or functionality of a page
• Understand if there’s appropriate alt-text on images
• Determine if the red sweater is identified by color alone
• Learn if the size drop-down works with a screen reader and keyboard
• Understand if the “Buy Now” button works with a screen reader and keyboard

38. Directed Tasks: Considerations
• Test very specific navigation path
• May not uncover other issues outside of the path
• May not be able to include many tasks in allotted time due to more instructions, more
specific instructions etc.

39. Open Tasks: What You’ll Learn
• Discover other paths for performing the tasks
• Discover workarounds participants are using- e.g., control+f, JAWS cursor workaround
• Determine what tasks to focus on for further research

40. Open Tasks: Considerations
• May not understand if specific areas or functionality of the site is accessible

41. Q&A Session
Type your questions into the chat panel

42. THANK YOU
FOR JOINING TODAY’S WEBINAR!
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