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Web Accessibility: Theory Or Practice?
A User-Focussed Approach To Web Accessibility
Guidelines
Brian Kelly
UKOLN
University of Bath
Bath
About This Talk
This brief talk reviews some of the
limitations of conventional
approaches to addressing Web
accessibility and outlines a userEmail
[email protected] centred approach which provides a
context for use of WAI guidelines.
UKOLN is supported by:
A centre of expertise in digital information management
This work is licensed under a AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence
(but note caveat) www.ukoln.ac.uk
About Me
Brian Kelly:
• UK Web Focus
• Web adviser to UK's higher & further education
community and cultural heritage sector
• Works for UKOLN – a national centre of expertise
in digital information management
• Based at the University of Bath
Interests:
• Emerging Web technologies e.g. Web 2.0
• Use of open standards
• Best practices
• Accessibility
Particular interest in engaging with council sector to help
maximise
Web's
potential
for
museums, library & archives
A centre of expertise
in digital
information
management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
2
Initial Web Accessibility Work
During late 1990s and early 2000s:
• Joint work with TechDis in advising HE/FE sector
on best practices for Web accessibility
• Initially promotion of WAI WCAG guidelines
• Surveys of 160+ UK HEI home pages carried out
in Aug/Sept 2002 (repeated in 2004)
• Results showed low levels of compliance (and this
without any manual testing). Manual testing shows
that pages reported as accessible may be
inaccessible.
Similar findings obtained
in other surveys
Implications:
• UK Universities don't care about Web accessibility
• UK Universities don't know about Web accessibility
• ofThe
guidelines
may management
be flawed
A centre
expertise
in digital information
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W4A 2005: Reprise
At W4A 2005 conference we presented “Forcing
Standardization or Accommodating Diversity…”:
• The practical difficulties of using a “standard” to
encapsulate design requirements to accommodate a
diverse set of needs under a diverse set of
circumstances
• The achievements and limitations of WCAG in
supporting this
• The resultant difficulties (and absurdities) from
legislation and policy – that makes inappropriate
reference to WCAG
• Using the example of the e-learning sector we pointed
the way to a more holistic view of Web accessibility
We received many positive comments on the ideas we
presented
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Limitations of the WAI Model
WAI approach has shortcomings:
• WAI model relies on conformant Web sites,
conformant authoring tools, conformant user agents
• …and conformant users!
• WCAG guidelines have flaws ("must use W3C
formats; must use latest versions; …")
• Has a Web-only view of the world:
 What about other IT solutions?
 What about blended (real world) solutions?
• Has a belief in a single universal solution:
 But isn't accessibility a very complex issue
 Is it reasonable to expect an ideal solution to
be developed at the first attempt?
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Wider Concerns Over WCAG
http://alistapart.com/articles/tohellwithwcag2/
Joe Clark's "To
Hell With
WCAG 2.0"
Blog posting
has led to
much
discussion on
the (technical)
merits of the
WCAG
approach to
Web
accessibility
and limitations
of WCAG 2.0
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The Importance of Context
• We argue Web accessibility is about
supporting users achieve real world goals
• From Beyer & Holzblatt (1998) – the more
you know about your target audience the
more you can design to support them
• So the goal of “universal accessibility” has
changed to supporting a defined set of
users in the best possible way…
• How can we use WCAG to achieve this?
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Holistic Approach
Kelly, Phipps & Swift developed
a blended approach to
e-learning accessibility
This approach:
• Focusses on the needs
of the learner
• Requires accessible
learning outcomes,
not necessarily e-learning
resources
This approach reflects emphasis in
UK on blended learning (rather than e-learning)
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Follow-up work awarded prize for Best Research Paper at ALT-C
A
centreE-learning
of expertise in digital
information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
2005
conference
Accessibility in Context
External factors: Institutional issues (funds, expertise,
policies, security…)
Digital Library Programme
Context
Purpose Sector Funding Resources Research
…
Policies
Standards Accessibility/Usability Privacy Finance …
Compliance
External Self-assessment Penalties Learning Broken
A framework has
been developed
which places
accessibility &
usability within a
wider context:
• The context
• A range of
policies
• A compliance
regime
Accessibility
guidelines should
This approach embraces relativism and context be usable in wider
rather than
the
current
absolute
approach
context
A centre
of expertise
in digital
information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
External factors: Legal issues; cultural factors; …
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Articulating the Approach
The "Tangram Metaphor" developed to avoid checklist /
automated approach:
• W3C model has limitations
• Jigsaw model implies
single solution
• Tangram model seeks to
avoid such problems
This approach:
• Encourages developers
to think about a diversity
of solutions
• Focus on 'pleasure' it
provides
userin digital information management
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expertise
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Tangram Model
Model allows us to:
• Focuses on end solution rather
than individual components
• Provided solutions tailored for
Guidelines/standards
end user
for/from:
• Doesn't limit scope (can you
• WAI
do better than WAI AAA?)
• Usability
• Make use of automated
• Organisational
checking – but ensures
• Dyslexic
emphasis is on user
• Learning difficulties
satisfaction
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• Legal
• Management
(resources, …)
• Interoperability
• Accessibility metadata
• Mobile Web
• …
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Tangram Model & Testability
"WCAG 2.0 success criteria are written as testable
statements …" (nb. automated & human testing )
Issues:
• What about WCAG principles that don't have defined success
criteria (e.g. "content must be understandable")?
• What about 'baselines' – context only known locally
• What about differing models or / definitions of 'accessibility'?
Note vendors of accessibility testing services will market
WCAG tools e.g. see posting on BSI PAS 78
Tangram model can be used within WCAG
• Distinguish between testable (ALT tags)
and subjective (content understandable)
• Supports baselines
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Testable
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Baseline 1
Does This Work For You?
Danger:
• WAI guidelines become an excuse not to do
anything; to fail to respond to users needs
(Podcasting, Skype, Blogs, …)
Scenarios:
• Podcasting or Skyping talks at conferences:
 Great: I was ill & couldn't make it
 Bad: No transcripts so breaks WCAG
• Blogs & Wikis for your users:
 Great: Giving users a voice
 Bad: Tools may produce bad HTML & no
semantic markup
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Conclusions
To conclude:
• WAI has provided a valuable starting point
• Need to develop a richer underlying model
• Need for Web accessibility to be placed in
wider content
• Contextual approach & tangram metaphor
aim to help inform such developments
• Should the WAI approach be more open
about contextualisation or should this be
applied externally?
• There's a need to an evidence-based
approach and less ideology
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Topics For Discussion
Topic 1: The key focus for accessibility should be
the user.
Topic 2: Accessibility guidelines should be treated
as guidelines, and not as infallible rules.
Topic 3: Automated testing is fundamentally flawed
as an approach to checking accessibility.
Topic 4: Usability is as important as accessibility and we mustn't ignore interoperability
issues.
Topic 5: Web 2.0 technologies can provide
valuable user services.
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Questions
Questions are welcome
Note resources cited in the talk are bookmarked in the
del.icio.us social bookmarking service using the tag
''e-access06"
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