The document discusses making online recruiting and hiring systems more accessible for people with disabilities. It provides statistics showing low employment rates for people with disabilities. It then analyzes the accessibility of top job search sites, finding issues like poor color contrast, unlabeled forms, and text that doesn't resize well. Recommendations are provided to improve keyboard/screen reader access, add text descriptions to images, properly label and associate forms, ensure adequate color contrast, and allow text resizing without layout breaks. The presentation emphasizes that accessibility benefits all users and calls for inclusive design practices.

1. Job search at a dead end?
Building Accessible Online
Recruiting & Hiring Systems
Why accessible eRecruiting tools make sense and the
simple steps that web developers and designers can
take to ensure that job seekers with disabilities are not
excluded from employment opportunities.
Coleman Conference on cognitive disabilities
2016 Conference (Denver, Colorado)
October 6th, 2016

2. The unemployed must be either lazy or unmotivated… or both!
Surely, in a world where technology makes it so easy to find a
job in a few clicks, one can’t help but wonder why so many
people are still without a job!

3. Building Accessible Online Recruiting & Hiring Systems 3@dboudreau
Denis Boudreau
User eXperience. Accessibility. Inclusive Design. Gamification. Empathy.
Empowering all users. Geek. Introvert. Pragmatism. Good design = inclusive design.
Deque Systems / Knowbility / W3C

4. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, June 2015
About 2 in 10 persons with
disabilities were in the labor force
in 2012, compared with about 7 in
10 persons with no disability.

5. Employment rate of People with disabilities
age 18-64, employed in the United States from 2000 to 2014
24.40%
12.90%
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Reference
https://www.disabilitystatistics.org/reports/cps.cfm?statistic=employment

6. We have a responsibility to create
applications that are accessible & usable
by the largest number of people possible.
Otherwise, why bother building them in the first place?

7. Basic Accessibility
For e-recruiting websites

8. Basic Accessibility issue types
Simple tests to measure accessibility
Keyboard access
Any situation where
people will be unable
to use the keyboard to
perform certain tasks,
or where focus
management will
cause problems.
Images
Any situation where
people will struggle
with accessing
information that is
conveyed through
images that are
informative in nature.
Forms
Any situation where
people will struggle
with understanding
the purpose of form
labels and form
controls, as well as
error messages.
Contrasts
Any situation where
people will have
trouble perceiving
information due to
color combinations
that are insufficiently
contrasted.
Text Resizing
Any situation where
resizing text will
cause page layout to
break and create
issues for people
trying to read
content.

9. Top job sites
April 2016
Top 5 Most Popular Job Sites
as derived from the eBizMBA
Rank, which is a continually
updated average of each
website's Alexa Global Traffic
Rank, and U.S. Traffic Rank
from both Compete and
Quantcast.
http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/job-websites
Reference

10. Most popular job sites April 2016
( According to the e-Biz MBA Guide )
www.indeed.com www.monster.com
1
www.glassdoor.com
2
3
www.careerbuilder.com
4
www.simplyhired.com
5

11. Accessibility findings
Indeed.com Monster.com GlassDoor.com CareerBuilder.com Simplyhired.com
Keyboard Access
Images
Forms
Contrasts
Text Resizing
Prevalent accessibility issues on top job search sites

12. Findings – Indeed.com
accessibility issues found using AXE and Tenon
60%
Main issues include insufficient color contrasts for text
and links, and labels that are not programmatically
associated with their controls.
KeyboardAccess Images Forms Contrasts Text Resize

13. Findings – Monster.com
accessibility issues found using AXE and Tenon
0%
Main issues include missing focus indicators on active
elements, insufficient color contrasts for text and links,
images not properly described in text, labels that are
not programmatically associated with their controls,
and text that disappears or gets truncated when
resized.
KeyboardAccess Images Forms Contrasts Text Resize

14. Findings – GlassDoor.com
accessibility issues found using AXE and Tenon
0%
Main issues include missing focus indicators on active
elements, insufficient color contrasts for text and links,
images not properly described in text, labels that are
not programmatically associated with their controls,
and text that disappears or gets truncated when
resized.
KeyboardAccess Images Forms Contrasts Text Resize

15. Findings – CareerBuilder.com
accessibility issues found using AXE and Tenon
0%
Main issues include missing focus indicators on active
elements, insufficient color contrasts for text and links,
images not properly described in text, labels that are
not programmatically associated with their controls,
and text that disappears or gets truncated when
resized.
KeyboardAccess Images Forms Contrasts Text Resize

16. Findings – SimplyHired.com
accessibility issues found using AXE and Tenon
0%
Main issues include missing focus indicators on active
elements, insufficient color contrasts for text and links,
images not properly described in text, labels that are
not programmatically associated with their controls,
and text that disappears or gets truncated when
resized.
KeyboardAccess Images Forms Contrasts Text Resize

17. Recommendations

18. Recommendations for Keyboard Access
Some of the top things to keep in mind…
Make sure every object in the page can
be fully interacted with, using only the
keyboard.
1
2
3
Make sure people using the keyboard to
navigate can easily and clearly identify
where the focus is at all times.
Make sure people using the keyboard to
navigate can easily and intuitively move
inside any component, or out of it.

19. Recommendations for Images
Some of the top things to keep in mind…
Make sure informative images are
described in text, so their content is
conveyed to assistive technologies.
1
2
3
Make sure purely decorative images
are not described in text, so assistive
technologies can safely ignore them.
Make sure informative images are
embedded as foreground images, so
they remain visible in High Contrast.

20. Recommendations for Forms
Some of the top things to keep in mind…
Make sure every form control is assigned a
visible text label, that is programmatically
associated with the control.
1
2
3
Make sure placeholder text is not used in
lieu of text labels to define the purpose of
form controls.
Make sure error messages are conveyed to
people in a way that is compatible with
assistive technologies.

21. Recommendations for Contrasts
Some of the top things to keep in mind…
Make sure foreground and background
colors used for text and images of text
present sufficient color contrasts.
1
2
3
Make sure link text used in content is
sufficiently contrasted, when compared
to its surrounding text color.
Make sure colors used remain sufficiently
contrasted in less than optimal lighting
conditions.

22. Recommendations for Text Resize
Some of the top things to keep in mind…
Make sure text being resized to 200%
of its original size remains completely
legible and readable.
1
2
3
Make sure no content gets truncated or
overlaps with other content as a result of
the text being resized.
Make sure resized text also considers word
wrapping to help people with low vision
read content more efficiently.

23. Designing for accessibility
Basic considerations to help you get
started with designing for users…
• Who have low vision
• Of screen readers
• Who are deaf or hard of hearing users
• With motor or physical disabilities
• On the autistic spectrum
• With dyslexia
Resource:
https://t.co/7EcvhHsLnV

24. Designing for dyslexia
Designing for users with dyslexia
• Use images and diagrams to support text
• Left-align text and keep a consistent layout
• Offer materials in alternate formats
• Keep content short, clear and simple
• Allow users to change color schemes
Resource:
https://t.co/7EcvhHsLnV

25. Designing for autism
Designing for users on the autistic
spectrum
• Use simple colors
• Write in plain English
• Use simple sentences and bullets
• Make button text descriptive
• Build simple and consistent layouts
Resource:
https://t.co/7EcvhHsLnV

26. Most barriers encountered by job seekers
with disabilities on the web are created by
every one of us, every time we build a new
web component, or fail to make sure
components are accessible.

27. Building Accessible Online Recruiting & Hiring Systems 27@dboudreau
Thank you.
Accessibility leads to empowerment
facebook.com/boudden ca.linkedin.com/in/dboudreau twitter.com/dboudreau skype.com/denisboudreau

28. Building Accessible Online Recruiting & Hiring Systems 28@dboudreau
Questions & comments
Stay in touch!
denis.boudreau@deque.com
+1 (514) 730-9168
@dboudreau

29. Building Accessible Online Recruiting & Hiring Systems 29@dboudreau
Resources &
references
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Employment status of the civilian population by sex, age, and disability…
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t06.htm
Disability Statistics - Cornel University
U.S. disability statistics in 3 easy steps – Employment Rates
https://www.disabilitystatistics.org/reports/acs.cfm?statistic=2
Disability Statistics - Cornel University
U.S. disability statistics in 3 easy steps – Employment
https://www.disabilitystatistics.org/reports/cps.cfm?statistic=employment
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP)
http://www.dol.gov/odep/
American Psychological Association
Disability & Socioeconomic Status
http://www.apa.org/pi/ses/resources/publications/factsheet-disability.aspx
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics Summary
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/disabl.nr0.htm

30. Building Accessible Online Recruiting & Hiring Systems 30@dboudreau

31. Building Accessible Online Recruiting & Hiring Systems 31@dboudreau
http://a11yMTL.org/