Download Slide 1

Arts, Media and Technology
at the MCA
9 August 2012
Museum of Contemporary Art,
Sydney
Roger Hudson
Web Usability
How many?
18.5% of all Australians (4 million people)
Age related
8.6% of 25-34 year olds
18% of 45-54 year olds
40% of 65-69 year olds
Source: “2009 Disability, Ageing and Careers survey”
Australian Bureau of Statistics
MYTH
People with disabilities
won’t / can’t / don’t
use the Internet
Internet Usage
53% of all people with reported disability
23% of people with ‘profound’ limitations
Social
Inclusion
WHAT?
Content of web pages should be
accessible with:
• Different input devices; mouse, keyboard,
switches, etc.
• Different output devices, browsers, screen
readers, magnifiers, etc.
Device independence
Source:
“Refreshable Braille and the Web”
Killing Bambi
Screen readers and Flash
Looking inside Flash
Eclipse ACTF aDesigner
http://www.eclipse.org/actf/downloads/tools/aDesigner/
MYTHS
Accessibility = expensive
Accessibility = difficult
Accessibility = boring
Rules and
regulations
Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act 1992
(Australian Human Rights Commission Advisory Note)
• All new websites should be WCAG 2 AA compliant.
• Existing non-government sites should be WCAG 2 AA by
end of 2013
Commonwealth (AGIMO) and state government
web guidelines
• Government websites should be WCAG 2 AA by end of
2014
UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities
Ratified by Australia in August 2009
WCAG 2 Structure – POUR Principles
Four key principles of accessibility
1. Content must be Perceivable
2. Interface components in the content must be
Operable
3. Content and controls must be Understandable
4. Content should be Robust enough to work with
current and future user agents (including AT)
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/
WCAG 2.0 Recommendations
“WCAG 2.0 W3C Recommendation” contains:
• 4 Principles
• 12 Guidelines
• 61 Success Criteria that specify what is required to
comply with the guidelines.
Three levels of conformance are defined for the Success
Criteria (A, AA and AAA)
Testable
Success Criteria are statements that can be applied to different
technologies and are testable by machines and/or humans.
WCAG 2.0 Techniques
Advice about how to satisfy the Success Criteria is
provided in the W3C “Techniques” document
• Sufficient Techniques: Ways of meeting the
Success Criteria.
• Advisory Techniques: Goes beyond what is
required to help authors better address the Guideline.
• Failures: Known failures to comply with the Success
Criteria
How do you know if something
is accessible?
A few simple accessibility questions
• Can you use the page without images?
• Can you use the page with the keyboard?
• When using a keyboard, do you know where
you are?
• Do headings use heading elements <H#>?
• How are form inputs identified?
• Is the colour contrast sufficient?
Accessibility testing tools can help a lot
(Demonstration of the Web Accessibility Toolbar)
http://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/wat-ie-about.html
http://www.aarts.net.au/audience-development/youth-arts-access/
But, tools can’t tell you everything
Quick introduction to screen readers
Screen readers output the
content of accessible pages as
either synthetic speech or
refreshable Braille.
Many different screen readers,
including:
• JAWS
• Window Eyes
• NVDA (Great Australian
technology that is FREE)
NVDA in action: Reading a web page
NVDA download: http://www.nvda-project.org/wiki/Download
http://www.aarts.net.au/audience-development/youth-arts-access/
Rapidly advancing web
Same old problems
Common problems 1 - 3
1. Failure to include text alternatives for images
The need to provide equivalent text alternatives for all non-text
content is the first accessibility requirement of WCAG 2.
2. Use of CAPTCHA
The most common example of CAPTCHA is distorted images of text
used as part of a login or registration process.
3. Failure to use HTML Header elements appropriately
Header element <h#> should be used to identify and present
different sections and sub-sections of the page.
Common problems 4 - 6
4. Failure to identify form inputs adequately
All form inputs should have explicitly associated labels or use the
input title attribute for identification.
5. Failure to ensure sites can be used without the mouse
Not all web users are able to use a mouse so it is important to
ensure site pages can also be used with the keyboard.
6. Failure to mark-up data tables correctly
With all data tables, users need to be able to associate the information
presented in each data cell with the relevant row and column headers.
Don’t forget older web users
In Australia
2005: 24% of 65 -74 year olds are online
2007: 38% of 65 -74 year olds are online
2011: 71% of 55 – 64 year olds (age group with
the greatest increase in use)
Mature age ICT users survey 2011
48% - text size is a problem at least sometime
23% - use of colour is a problem at least sometime
‘web sites are designed by young people
with good vision’ (Participant comment)
Where next?
Making
exciting things
accessible is
exciting
Thank you
Any questions
Roger Hudson
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.usability.com.au
Blog: www.dingoaccess.com