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Accessibility for Impaired Users

Devin S. Olson

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narcissism – Devin Olson

Developing software for over 25 years (have actually coded using punch cards and used paper tape). Lotus Notes since R3.

Anheuser-Busch Certified Beer Master

Devin Olson is happily married and lives with his wife & children in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Devin Olson has been developing software since the days of punch cards and paper tape, and began playing with Lotus Notes in 1995. He holds numerous admin, development, and networking certifications. Devin is a home brewer, loves the outdoors, cool cars, and rock & roll.

Devin was born in Salt Lake City, UT, and grew up in Phoenix, AZ. He joined the US Marine Corps while still in High School. After his enlistment, he attended college at Arizona State University.

Devin Olson has worked as a welder, cook, bartender, pipe-fitter, electronics technician, clerk, busboy, bail bondsman, engineer, mason's aid, truck driver, broker, projectionist, stage hand, lighting technician, steel climber, helpdesk technician, mechanic, manager, and software developer,.

Devin has toured through most of the US on a motorcycle. Collects guitars (though he can't play), and has studied Kenpo, Shotokan, and Muay Thai Kickboxing.

For some weird reason that he can't quite figure out, Devin Olson really enjoys writing about himself in third person and seeing his name in bold font. Perhaps he should consider therapy.

asw

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Where I live

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Accessibility for Impaired Users: Inspiration for this Session

Once upon a time…

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How this session came to be

US DOI BLM NTCSection 508? No informationRead a BookLotusphere 2006

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Lotusphere 2012 OGS

Michael J. Fox Dr. Jeffrey Burns

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Agenda

Impaired Users – Who are they?What are the legal, moral, & ethical

issues?What should you consider?Where to Start?Baby Steps: Understand, Convince, Kill,

& alt.

VisualVisual Partial or Total Vision Loss Degenerative Vision Partial or Total Color Blindness Born Blind or Later Vision Loss

Impaired Users – Who are they?

AuditoryAuditory Partial or Total Deafness Degenerative Hearing Specific Frequency Loss Born Blind or Later Hearing Loss

Motor SkillsMotor Skills Partial or Total Motor Skill Loss Missing, Damaged, Deformed

Appendages Born Impaired, Injured, or

Degenerative Disease

Cognitive and Learning DisabilityCognitive and Learning Disability Cognitive: concentrate, formulate

ideas, reason, remember read (dyslexia), math (dyscalcula),

or write (dysgraphia)

Impairment can span multiple

categories

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World Internet Use: 2001 to 2011

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200

400

600

800

1000

1200

2001 2011

AfricaAsiaEuropeMid. EastN. AmericaL. AmericaAustralia

361 Million to nearly 2.3 Billion –in 10 years!

*IWS Statistics, December 2011

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Internet % Growth: 2001 to 2011

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500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

2001

AfricaAsiaEuropeMid. EastN. AmericaL. AmericaAustralia

*IWS Statistics, December 2011

Over 500% Worldwide Growth

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Impaired Users - Who are they?- Visually Impaired Users

285 million people worldwide39 million totally blind, 246 million

partially impaired.90% of the world's visually impaired

live in developing countries.

World Health Organization

Fact Sheet #282, October 2011

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Impaired Users - Who are they?- Auditory Impaired Users

In 2004, 275 million people globally had moderate-to-profound hearing loss.

80% of these impaired users live in low- and middle-income countries.

World Health Organization

Fact Sheet #300, February 2012

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Impaired Users - Who are they?- Motor Skill Impaired Users

10 million with ET (Essential Tremor) syndrome.

6.3 million people have Parkinson’s worldwide, 1.2 million in Europe.

33 million with some level of paralytic disability

International Essential Tremor Foundation

European Parkinson’s Disease Association American Academy of Family Physicians

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Impaired Users - Who are they?- Cognitive and Learning Disability

450 million people worldwide suffer from some form of mental disorder or brain condition.

Estimated between 1% and 3% of population have a mild, moderate, or severe and profound learning disability

World Health Organization Study 2001

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Disabled Computer Users by Age

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20

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50

60

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Percent

15-3435-5455-6465+

Disability Research Information Page; Canadian Council on Social Development(General Social Survey - 2000)

In North American and Europe, 31% of all disabled persons aged 55 and above use the internet on a regular basis.

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Impaired Users - Who are they?

Your friends.Your family.Your co-workers.Your customers.

People you care about.

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Existing Law in Europe

Guidelines, Recommendations, and Declarations

2006 Riga Ministerial Declaration

Not Law

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Existing Law in Ireland

Employment Equality Act 1998: Disability as grounds for Discrimination

Equal Status Act 2004: Defines Required Accommodation for the Disabled

Disability Act 2005: Explicitly Identifies electronic communication and access.

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What is Section 508?

President Clinton signed law August 7, 1998.

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, 29 U.S.C. requires that all electronic technology developed or provided by any Federal Agency be accessible to people who are disabled.

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Legal disclaimer - I am NOT a lawyer

Text slide of legal or disclaimer information

The following information is the sole OPINION of Devin S. Olson, and does not represent the opinions, beliefs, political motivations, or official policies of either his employer or IBM in any way.

This information is meant to be informative in nature only; it is NOT official legal advice.

Consult with your attorney.

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Section 508: how it applies to you

Section 508 does not apply to State and Local governments.

Section 508 does not apply to companies using federal funds.

Section 508 does not apply to Private Sector.

“I don’t work for the government, this doesn’t apply to me!”

However....

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Section 508 defines a standard for accessibility

Related Legislation: Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, Titles 1 and 4

ADA ADA leans heavilyleans heavily upon Section 508 upon Section 508

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Sound of Inevitability

ADA doesdoes apply to State and Local governments.

ADA doesdoes apply to companies using federal funds.

ADA doesdoes apply to Private Sector.

ADA ADA leans heavilyleans heavily upon Section 508 upon Section 508

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Coming to European Union

"I will propose an accessibility act in 2012. I know that I can count on the European Parliament to support this crucial issue."

European Commission Vice-President Viviane Reding, addressing a special meeting of the Disability Intergroup in the European Parliament, 13 JAN 2012

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EU Authority & Predictions

Lisbon Treaty provides legal basis

EC is planning on working with PARTNER nations, not just MEMBER nations.

US ADA 1998 explicitly cited as an example.

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“Letter of the Law” vs. Doing what is RIGHT

Your legal department should provide advice regarding your legal responsibilities.

Impaired Users represent a large pool of untapped potential customers.

Juggling your priorities

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Remember Wheaton’s Rule

Generates good will.

Building an inaccessible application is just plain rude.

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W3C Design Principles

Perceivable. You should ensure that all content can be presented in forms that can be perceived by everyone.

Operable. You should ensure that the interface elements in the content are operable by everyone.

Robust. You should use technologies that maximize the ability of your content to work with current and future web browsers, assistive technologies, and other programs.

Navigable. You should facilitate content orientation and navigation.

Understandable. You should make it as easy as possible for people to understand your content and controls.

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Where to Start?

Understand the TechnologyConvince the BossKill the FlashThe alt attribute

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Baby Step 1 - Understand the Technology

Screen Readers (JAWS from Freedom Scientific).

Refreshable Braille displays. Adaptive & voice browsers. Text only browsers. Browsers made specifically for people with

disabilities (IBM Home Page Reader) IOS – Apple Gets It

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Baby Step 2 - Convince the Boss

Designing for accessibility requires a different point of view from that of most development projects.

Adding support to most existing apps is time consuming work.

Even though Domino is extremely conducive to this; it willwill cost time & money to do right.

“Skunkworks projects” won’t work; to succeed, you must have management buy inmust have management buy in.

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Baby Step 3 - Kill the Flash

Flash navigation looks cool. Flash navigation is very robust. Most Flash navigation is either incredibly frustrating or

absolutely unusable to Impaired users. Frustrated users rarely come back to your site. What to do? Remove the Flash entirely! (Steve Jobs was right) Provide an easily accessible & prominent alternative

navigation method.

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Baby Step 4 - the alt attribute

Defines “alternative text” for an image.Also referred to as the “text-equivalent”.Most browsers ignore it, unless the

image cannot be found.Screen Readers (such as JAWS) read it.You should use it for every image you

include on every page you design.

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Think about the End User

Who, specifically, are the potential users of your application?

Think of PERSONS, not people.What are their needs?What can you do to make your site more

accessible to these PERSONS?

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Dive Into Accessibility

Dive Into Accessibility: 30 days to a more accessible web site

by Mark Pilgrim.

http://diveintoaccessibility.info

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Development Tips Examples

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Development Tips

Use Color Safely Link Decoration Tables, Layouts, Captions, Headers & Summaries Spacer Images and the return of the alt attribute. Font Sizes: Pixels vs. Percents vs. Relative. Real Links vs. JavaScript "Links“ (XPages BAD)

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Development Tips

Adding Keyboard Shortcuts: the accesskey attribute.

Form elements and the label tag. (Xpages GOOD) STOP Opening new windows. Adding a search box to your site. Identify your language. Adding page titles

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Final Point: Designing Help

NONO images, unless absolutely necessary.

NO JavaScriptNO Java AppletsNO (or very minimal) CSS

HELP MUST BE FULLY ACCESSIBLE

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Additional Resources

Building Accessible Websites, Joe Clark ISBN: 073571150X

Designing with Web Standards, Jeffrey Zeldman ISBN: 0735712018

diveintoaccessibility.org Mark Pilgrim's accessibility tips.

webxact.watchfire.com Website Accessibility Testing Tool.

www-306.ibm.com/able IBM Accessibility Center http://www.vischeck.com color blindness simulator

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Additional Resources - continued

www-3.ibm.com/able/solution_offerings/hpr.html IBM Home Page Reader

www.w3.org/WAI W3C WAI Page www.section508.gov Section 508 resource page. www.freedomscientific.com Freedom Scientific

assistive and adaptive technology. Distributor of JAWS screen reader software.

wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html Color Scheme Generator

www.afb.org American Foundation for the Blind

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Final Thought

48 percent of persons with disabilities say the Internet has improved their lives, compared to 27 percent of other populations.

- Michigan State University report on Web Accessibility

“The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone, regardless of disability, is an essential aspect.”

Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web

“There is nothing that you can do on the iPhone or iPad that I can’t do..”

Stevie Wonder