Web accessibility is a crucial component of how we construct our websites today, some with legal requirements to ensure our websites cater to clients of all abilities and disabilities. But how much do we actually know about web accessibility, it's implications and it's implementation? How much do we know about the accessibility of the latest technologies like HTML5 and WAI-ARIA? And can we use these now? Once you begin to think about web accessibility and accessibility in general, you start to see the world in a very different way.
In this talk, Tady Walsh, will take us through website accessibility, starting at the very beginning and will continue up to and including today's technologies. He will discuss, not only how to cater for the various types of disabilities our website visitors may have, but also the way we as developers and designers should be thinking about website accessibility, in every step of our work.
Bio: Tady is a project manager and information architect with Arekibo Communications. With a background in front-end development, he has been working and thinking about web site design and development for the past 15 years. He's a vocal supporter of cool design, good user experience and considerate development methods. His thoughts and opinions can be found on twitter as @tadywankenobi, on his website at http://www.tadywalsh.com and also on Arekibo's blog http://blog.arekibo.com.
4. Who am I?
I am:
· A HTML, CSS and PHP developer
· A Project Manager for Arekibo Communications
· An Information Architect (UX/UI)
· An Accessibility Jedi
· A co-curator on HTML5 Gallery
· A Purple Netscape survivor of the first Browser Wars
5. The Myths
· Accessibility is di cult to add/comply with
· Accessible websites are ugly websites
· New technology is already outdated
· New technology isn’t ready
· Making websites accessible is a pain in the ass
6. Let’s stop talking about making websites accessible. Instead,
let’s talk about keeping websites accessible. I’m not saying
that HTML is a magic bullet but as long as you are using
the most semantically appropriate elements to mark up
your content, you are creating something [that] is, by
default, accessible. It’s only afterwards, when we start
adding the bells and whistles, that the problems can begin.
Jeremy Keith, 2008
7. Web Accessibility
· The practice of designing, building and
maintaining websites so that they may
be used by people of all abilities and
disabilities.
8. Web Usability
· By contrast, web usability is the
practice of designing, building and
maintaining websites that are easy and
intuitive to understand by the user
without the requirement for prior
knowledge or experience.
11. Disability Act 2005
· Subsection 28: Access to information
- (2) Where a public body communicates in electronic form
with one or more persons, the head of the body shall ensure,
that as far as practicable, the contents of the communication
are accessible to persons with a visual impairment to whom
adaptive technology is available.
- (3) The head of a public body shall ensure, as far as
practicable, that information published by the body, which
contains information relevant to persons with intellectual
disabilities, is in clear language that is easily understood by
those persons.
17. A/AA/AAA/Wha?
· A - Basic support
· AA - Better support. Minimum for Govt/
Public bodies.
· AAA - Best support. Most di cult to
implement completely
23. The idea that “if it can’t be measured, it doesn’t count” is
one of the most damaging delusions of our time. It gives us
a world that rewards quantity, not quality.
Cennydd Bowles, 2011
24. Make metrics the core goal of your design and you’ll just
end up with design that optimises those numbers, at the
expense of other important qualities.
Cennydd Bowles, 2011
25. Levels of Tolerance
· Checklists should be used as a guide
· Viewed with subjectivity
· Viewed with understanding
· Viewed with common sense
38. WebAIM survey
· JAWS is still the primary screen reader.
· The perception of free or low-cost screen readers is improving.
· 98.4% of respondents had JavaScript enabled.
· Two-thirds of the respondents use a screen reader on a mobile
device
· Most respondents find longdesc useful.
· Social media use has increased.
· 12.8% use screen mag with their screen reader.
· Use of headings for page navigation continues to increase while
use of “skip” links and access keys has decreased
39. WebAIM survey
· One first level heading
12.5% that contains the site name
50.4% ·One first level heading that
contains the document title
37.1%
·Two first level headings,
one for the site name and
one for the document title